Your Metal Gear Solid V experience starts next spring with Ground Zeroes, a prequel that will cost $19.99 or $29.99 depending on which console you buy it for and how you’ll be playing. Current-gen systems will have a downloadable version available for $19.99 or a hard copy that will run $29.99.


Here’s the official word from Konami's press release:

METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES features new advances made possible by Kojima Productions' FOX Engine, such as radical new game design, day and night cycles, and weather conditions that will all dynamically affect gameplay. The missions are designed to ease players into the new control and gameplay advances that will be an integral part of METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN. The METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES storyline follows the series' hero, Big Boss, as he infiltrates a remote Cuban prison camp on a rescue mission, all while trying to remain undetected. Explosive plot lines develop quickly as he finds himself on behind enemy lines with little options for help. "The advanced capabilities of the FOX Engine are allowing me to express the story of METAL GEAR SOLID in a new way," explained Hideo Kojima, Creator of the METAL GEAR SOLID series, and head of Kojima Productions. "There will be a significant difference in what METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN brings to the series, so we want to ease players into the new open world environment and its potential, allowing them to fully benefit from all that the new game offers. As such, METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES has been designed to introduce key elements, while setting up the events of METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN." METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES will be released in Spring 2014 on PlayStation®3, PlayStation®4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One systems. The game will be available in retail stores nationwide on current generation systems for the MSRP of $29.99 or via download for $19.99. For PlayStation®4 and Xbox One, the game can be downloaded for $29.99 suggested retail price.


The fact that Ground Zeroes will be a playable prologue for The Phantom Pain has been known for a while. You can find Kotaku's preview of MGS V here.