Why would Konami celebrate this franchise? First red flag
The Metal Gear 35th site, posted on April Fools, is indeed fake. I mean it was kind of obvious (and the site itself has since made it clear that it is an April Fools joke with a pop-up), but just in case you needed confirmation, Konami has independently stated that the site is not their doing. In fact, speaking to TechRadar, the publisher is “currently considering how to deal with this site,” presumably from a legal standpoint.
Of course, there is a reason why some people thought it was real. The fake itself was done in the same style as the official Konami website portals for each game, and it involved an NFT auction: a very real Konami tactic. It was just cynical enough to pass as an amusing fake to people who spot these sorts of things for a living, and fool a chunk of people.
Naturally, Konami is tight-lipped about doing anything for the actually real Metal Gear 35th anniversary (the series came out in 1987), and stated “there is nothing we can say right now” when asked if they had anything planned for it. With the creator completely removed and bad blood still flowing, it’s hard to imagine Konami doing anything significant that would get enough people excited to potentially let go of the past.
Remember when this was a hot current franchise and Konami couldn’t wait to release new merch and announce new projects for it? Now, a fake Metal Gear 35th site is one of the hottest things happening to it.
