Metal Gear Solid Delta’s Delayed Multiplayer Won’t Have Crossplay, and It’s Not Going Down Well With Fans

Not only will Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater be missing its multiplayer Fox Hunt mode at launch, the online offering will also lack crossplay support when it does arrive.

Metal Gear Delta developer Konami dropped the bombshell today via its Japanese social media account, and stated that players on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S would be excluded from playing with one another.

The response to the news has not been kind, with fans dubbing the announcement as “severely disappointing” and a decision that could now impact the overall longevity of the game, should particular platforms start to feel devoid of players.

“Why not? Konami IDs have existed forever. Use ’em,” wrote one fan in response.

“I have friends who play on different platforms,” wrote another. “Now I won’t be able to play with them. This game mode will be dead on arrival if it doesn’t have crossplay.”

“Battlefield 6 will be getting my money,” wrote a third person. “I can play with my friends in other platforms because they actually thought cross-play through.”

Announced back in June, Fox Hunt is an all-new multiplayer offering stealth and survival elements, which Konami has previously promised will “camouflage and hide and go seek to the next level” rather than just providing another Call of Duty-style shootout.

This isn’t the first time Metal Gear Solid has dabbled with multiplayer, of course. Metal Gear Online, which came bundled with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots back in 2008, lasted four years, before its servers were switched off in 2012.

“When we say Metal Gear multiplayer, many fans will probably think of Metal Gear Online, but Fox Hunt will be its own new type of mode,” said veteran Metal Gear Solid developer Yu Sahara, who now acts as Fox Hunt’s director. “We very much appreciate all the long-time fans of MGO who have always wanted to see it make a comeback, but the landscape of multiplayer games has changed a lot since MGO. It took a lot of careful consideration to think about what a new online mode should look like.”

Last week, Konami admitted that Fox Hunt would miss the launch of the main, single-player portion of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, which arrives on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 28. Fox Hunt will then launch via a post-launch update sometime this “fall”.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social