Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is "hundreds" of times bigger than Ground Zeroes

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has quantified just how much larger the full Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is compared to its tutorial-esque prologue Ground Zeroes. A tweet from Kojima's Japanese account, translated by Siliconera, explains the difference.

"GZ is both a prologue to the MGSV story and, at the same time, a tutorial for a new MGS, which transitions to sneaking simulator," he said. "With that said, GZ has a relatively small field as compared to the main game (which is hundreds of times larger) without time zones changing in real-time. However, each mission offers different time zones with different playstyles.”

Ground Zeroes launches March 18 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. The Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game will each receive their own exclusive content. Kojima recently explained which version of the game you should buy.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will follow sometime later, though Konami has not yet announced a release date for the open-world game. Kojima recently said that the game has "enormous volume" and will not be finished for some time.