Metal Gear Solid is getting a board game from the creator of Specter Ops

Stealth video game series Metal Gear Solid is being turned into a board game by Specter Ops designer Emerson Matsuuchi.

Matsuuchi and publisher IDW teased the upcoming project with a picture of social media, saying only that the game would be “coming 2019”. Whether that means a Kickstarter campaign or release – or both – remains to be seen.

The board game – apparently just called Metal Gear Solid – appears to be based on the original 1998 PlayStation game in the series, showing artwork of bandana-clad protagonist Solid Snake.

The banner also repeats the video game’s ‘tactical espionage action’ tagline and plays off series creator Hideo Kojima’s front-and-centre credit with the line “A Game by Emerson Matsuuchi”.

Matsuuchi has previously credited Metal Gear Solid with inspiring his tabletop hidden movement hit Specter Ops – the latest standalone sequel-expansion to which, Broken Covenant, remains an outstanding one-versus-many stealth showdown despite some unfortunate production issues.

Matsuuchi said that Specter Ops had originally been designed as a Metal Gear Solid game but became the homage-heavy Specter Ops after his inability to obtain the licence from Metal Gear studio Konami, making him arguably the perfect designer to take on the beloved series.

IDW has been tight-lipped so far about how the Metal Gear Solid board game will compare to Specter Ops, but reassured fans on social media that it wouldn’t simply be a reskinned version of the existing game and would capture the experience of playing Metal Gear Solid in a board game. It’s teased more details for later this week.

Coming 2019. pic.twitter.com/4P0mGjkGvf

— IDW Games (@IDWGames) 30 November 2018