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Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 delisted from storefronts over archive footage license

Konami has pulled two Metal Gear Solid games from shelves as it works to renew licenses for historical archive footage.

Donovan Erskine

November 8, 2021 9:30 AM

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The Metal Gear franchise has a lot of parallels and commentary on our real-world, with some of its titles even using archival footage from actual events. Now, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, along with several other titles in the series, are being delisted from digital stores as Konami has lost the license to some historical archive footage shown in them.

Konami announced that several Metal Gear Solid games are being delisted over a licensing issue in a post to its website earlier today. Here are all of the games being removed and their respective storefronts:

• Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty HD Edition - PS3 and PS Vita
• Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater HD Edition - PS3 and PS Vita
• Metal Gear Solid HD Edition - PS3
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection - PS Vita and PS Now
• Metal Gear Solid HD Edition: 2 and 3 - Xbox 360
• Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D - Nintendo 3DS
• Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance - GOG
• Metal Gear Solid 2 HD for Shield TV - Nvidia Shield
• Metal Gear Solid 3 HD for Shield TV - Nvidia Shield

These games have been pulled from stores, effective today. That said, Konami says that it is “currently working on renewing the licenses for select historical archive footage used in-game.” The games being delisted means that players will no longer be able to purchase and download them from stores. That said, if you already own the games, you can still launch and play it whenever you like.

The delisting also has no impact on the sale or use of physical copies of the games. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a major game get pulled from storefronts over an expired license. It’s one of the drawbacks of going fully digital with games. For future updates on the Metal Gear Solid games and their potential return to digital stores, stick with Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_