I personally think this game will star Big Boss. Why? Look at the logo on his sleeve:

That's the logo for Militaires Sans Frontieres, the organisation that Big Boss starts in Peace Walker. Personally, I hope this is a reboot anyway as I think both Big Boss and Solid Snake have finished their character arcs and anything further will likely just be spinning their wheels.

EDIT: I feel I need to clarify some things. At the time of creating this thread all of the stuff I was reading said that it appeared to be Solid Snake (including the Giantbomb page). This thread was an attempt to get out in front of that. Also I don't follow Kojima rumors as I find them extremely frustrating (remember when MGS 4 was almost certain to come to 360?)

Um... Yeah, that was in the information that was released today. Aside from the fact he's wearing his Peace Walker sneaking suit, and has a patch of the MSF on him, and that sick mullet.

I also don't get people who always say "THEY SHOULD JUST REBOOT IT NOWHERE LEFT TO GO". There is literally everywhere left to go. We never see how Big Boss and Zero fell out, or the rise of Outer Heaven. There's still, from Peace Walker's date of 1974, 30 years left of stories we have to see.

In Peace Walker they wanted to show how Liquid Snake got turned into a bad guy, since he was British SAS before being captured in Afghanistan. Maybe they can do that now. I mean, after all, Big Boss knew both Solid and Liquid well enough to personally train Solid Snake in CQC, and tell Liquid how much of a bastard he was.

Plus you can see part of an eye patch above the NVG's

Yeah if I had to guess I'd say it takes place after Peace Walker both the logo, the sneaking suit, and it definitely looks like there is an eyepatch above the goggles.

I can't think of any event in the timeline it could be based around though.

Metal... Gear?!

And yes, I believe we have ourselves The Next Great Sequel in The Naked Snake Lineage. Which I'm glad. Not only does it make sense since there's pretty much nowhere else for Solid Snake to go besides his own personal Outer Heaven, but I've always preferred Big Boss to Solid <3 Better smoking habits, better facial hair, eye patch, better history, starred in the best MGS game - guy's got it all.

Yeah defiantly Big Boss and probably set in the 70s were there is a gap in the MGS timeline

Already getting hyped

Or younger solid snake, isn't that kinda how he looked during MGS2? 
 
EDIT: Never mind, there's totally an eyepatch there.

YEEEESSZZZZ! Big Boss is mah bro! Can't wait!

Kind of excited about this but man am I sick of that crappy sneaking suit that Big Boss wears. The camo stuff was so much better.

The picture is definitely Big Boss, as noted by the eye patch and the "Military Sans Frontiers" patch. MSF was Big Bosses PMC in Peacewalker, which ended in such a way that would fit the new open world concept of this game. Or Kojima could pull a bait and switch again and only let us play Big Boss at the start and another character later (or many other characters). Looking forward to more news, and hopefully some footage soon.

@Chris2KLee said:

The picture is definitely Big Boss, as noted by the eye patch and the "Military Sans Frontiers" patch. MSF was Big Bosses PMC in Peacewalker, which ended in such a way that would fit the new open world concept of this game. Or Kojima could pull a bait and switch again and only let us play Big Boss at the start and another character later (or many other characters). Looking forward to more news, and hopefully some footage soon.

Also it's Big Bosses sneaking suit. :)

@Soap said:

@Chris2KLee said:

The picture is definitely Big Boss, as noted by the eye patch and the "Military Sans Frontiers" patch. MSF was Big Bosses PMC in Peacewalker, which ended in such a way that would fit the new open world concept of this game. Or Kojima could pull a bait and switch again and only let us play Big Boss at the start and another character later (or many other characters). Looking forward to more news, and hopefully some footage soon.

Also it's Big Bosses sneaking suit. :)

For re re?

Read the article on Game spot, dude was talking about an eye patch and how it might be solid snake or how it might be another clone and all I was thinking was Big boss... fucking... big boss

dopey dude is dopey

@Yummylee said:

Metal... Gear?!

And yes, I believe we have ourselves The Next Great Sequel in The Naked Snake Lineage. Which I'm glad. Not only does it make sense since there's pretty much nowhere else for Solid Snake to go besides his own personal Outer Heaven, but I've always preferred Big Boss to Solid <3 Better smoking habits, better facial hair, eye patch, better history, starred in the best MGS game - guy's got it all.

You forgot "is not a freaking clone with all the complications that entailed".

I'm not sure how I feel about this though. I played very little of Portable Ops and nothing of Peace Walker so I'm not really up to date on the Big Boss happenings.

Yeah, that's how Big Boss suits up, not Solid Snake. I mean, he could, but still. I'm so excited for this! :D

Fuck yes! I'm all in for another Big Boss game!

@Phatmac: As long as it isn't an MMO :s

@Sarge506: Huh?

What the fuck people? It's been common knowledge that this MGS would star Big Boss as far back as the beginning of the year.

Has anyone found a Japanese language source that has confirmed that this is an actual game? All the English news sources are basing their articles on twitter messages. From what I read Famitsu has a comment from Kojima where he outright states this is not a game and their actual game will be announced at TGS.

well, this does sound cool, BB in open world MGS O__O

& NO, no reboot BS!

make a game that fits in the current games storyline or nothing at all. they're already screwing things up enough with rising BS!!

@sodacat said:

Has anyone found a Japanese language source that has confirmed that this is an actual game? All the English news sources are basing their articles on twitter messages. From what I read Famitsu has a comment from Kojima where he outright states this is not a game and their actual game will be announced at TGS.

The twitter sources are all 8-4 guys who were actually at the event. It's legit.

Snake or no, I want to play a Metal Gear Solid game!

Here's what I think: the game stars Big Boss in the late 70s or 80s, set in Africa, and we will see a young Frank Yaeger and Naomi Hunter. At the end of the game, BB will take them both with him back to America.

It has to be Big Boss, the outfit gives it away. I'm happy we are going ever closer to the remake of Metal Gear, but it will be played from both Big Boss and Solid Snakes perspective, yes please!

The only way for us to really know it's big boss is if he pulls his pants down.

@AuthenticM: If both Grey Fox and Big Boss are in this game, I'm fucking sold.

I thought it was already stated before that the next game would star Big Boss. I'm pretty sure that's him.

To those of you saying "This has been common knowledge for a long time": not everyone obsessively follows rumors. Also, I hadn't heard any news source saying it's Big Boss. As for the eyepatch, I hadn't notice that. Nice catch!

Anyway, I was mostly starting this thread because at that time the Giantbomb page said it looked like Solid Snake.

@Calitar: Just saying you could be right that he is Big Boss because about a year ago there was an article speculating that he would once again be the main character for MGS5 they also showed concept art of him with a dog. Nice catch on the patch on his arm though I didn't notice that.

That screenshot looks incredible

I love Big Boss, but holy god am I tired of BB games.

Maybe it'll go back and forth between Big Boss setting up Outer Heaven and Snake in the original Metal Gear trying to take it down or something

I'm just so fucking tired of Big Boss

@sodacat said:

Has anyone found a Japanese language source that has confirmed that this is an actual game? All the English news sources are basing their articles on twitter messages. From what I read Famitsu has a comment from Kojima where he outright states this is not a game and their actual game will be announced at TGS.

From what I've heard it started as a demo but is being made into a full game.

I disagree that Big Boss' arc is finished. He still hasn't really had his great "fall" yet, and hasn't quite been pushed over the edge by Zero and the Patriots, though I assume that's what this game is going to be all about.

the eye patch strap is on the wrong side, plus there's indentations of his age on his face..... but the beard is wrong. Just using Peace Walker for reference, but even Peace Walker model is different from Portable Ops. So they can excuse slight changes to the model, but even his model got tweaked in the 3DS Snake eater release. It'd be fun if yet ANOTHER SURPRISE, fooled you, you play as some one else, but I'm kinda expecting along side of MGS3 and 4 slight changes like masks to change the face.

its obvious it would star big boss snake, and if you were going to go by that picture- the uniform and the weapon are clearly older-fashioned so-to-speak. didnt even have to reference the patch.

@Yummylee said:

Metal... Gear?!

And yes, I believe we have ourselves The Next Great Sequel in The Naked Snake Lineage. Which I'm glad. Not only does it make sense since there's pretty much nowhere else for Solid Snake to go besides his own personal Outer Heaven, but I've always preferred Big Boss to Solid <3 Better smoking habits, better facial hair, eye patch, better history, starred in the best MGS game - guy's got it all.

You bet your ass MGS3's the best MGS game! And Subsistence is even better!

...at least, that'd better be what you're referring to.

@crithon said:

the eye patch strap is on the wrong side

Oh crap, your right. WTF Kojima?!

@Calitar:

@Calitar: It's not. The picture is flipped.

Check the first post: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=489175

From FOX, two phantoms are born. Solid Snake and... Big Boss?

@AuthenticM said:

@Calitar: It's not. The picture is flipped.

Check the first post: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=489175

Ah tricky. OK then it's probably not another Kojima bait-and-switch.

I am excited for this. Interesting to learn what era the game is set in.