Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain could not see the light of day until as late as December 2015, according to a Konami investment call attended by industry analyst David Gibson.

"MGS5 could be released in FY3/2015 or FY3/2016 depending on the development stage," said Gibson on Twitter after Konami announced its latest financial results. That puts the game in pretty massive potential release window, ranging from the lucrative October to December period in 2014 or 2015 when mapped out from Konami's financial year and placed into the real calendar.

Gibson also said that Konami admitted to investors that Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is also a short game, after it was revealed earlier this week that players could complete the main story path in under two hours.

As part of its latest financial report released today, Konami revealed that it made 5 billion yen ($49m/£30m) of profit for the nine months ending December 31, 2014, a 42 percent drop year-on-year.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will be released on March 18, at least.