Snake approves of this foreign drink, but probably doesn't approve of misleading his fans.

Shame on you, Official PlayStation Magazine UK.

The publication teased a cover story with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima with a line about Metal Gear Solid 5, strongly implying he would be revealing the first details on the unannounced sequel within.

Turns out that’s not true, and OPM UK let the story linger the entire weekend before clearing the air. It doesn’t help that Konami didn’t issue its own clarification, instead telling me my request for comment was passed onto the UK division of the company, and nothing came back.

OPM UK published a more elaborate quote today:

“I think we’ll probably have to make it [MGS5] at some point, but what that will be, we have no idea,” he reportedly said. “As far as my involvement in the project is concerned, [it] probably won’t be as much as it was with MGS1--maybe I can do just one stage! For MGS1 I made the maps myself, laid out the enemy routes myself, did everything hands-on--that level I can’t do again.”

In other words, it’s not in active development, it’s not a real thing, and it was purely hypothetical conjecture on the part of Kojima--sorry, Koj. In other words, a complete non-story.

The result was an article on Giant Bomb that was misleading at best, a falsehood at worst. That’s embarrassing, and it’s why I barely ever run news that isn’t straight from the horse’s mouth or the result of my own eyes-on, ears-on reporting. And it’s why I’ll refrain from publishing anything from OPM UK again anytime soon. I’m not about to encourage what was purely link bait.

I linked to the new story from OPM UK only as proof of its existence. I’d encourage you not to click on it.