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Fan-Made 'Metal Gear Solid' Remake Cancelled; Gamers Blame Konami (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: Fans of the popular Metal Gear Solid series are ticked off at Konami over the cancellation of an unofficial, fan-built remake of the very first title that shipped for the original PlayStation way back in 1998. The remake's cancellation was announced on the project's Facebook page, which immediately prompted backlash aimed at Konami for presumably having a hand in it. The project, dubbed Shadow Moses, was the brainchild of indie game designer Airam Hernandez. It appears he may have assembled a small team to remake the original Metal Gear Solid using Unreal Engine 4. While it hasn't been confirmed that Konami shut the project down, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that it did. This wouldn't be the first fan project to be cancelled, and it likely won't be the last— Metal Gear Solid is Konami's property, and even Hernandez acknowledged at one point that he would eventually need Konami's permission to publish it.
It probably wasn't about making a game to make money or the like. They probably liked the old game and wanted to play it with a modern engine.
There may not be any harm, but it also means you have exactly zero moral high ground to try to claim when the company inevitably shuts it down.
The fact that someone really loves an IP typically has no bearing on whether a company will grant permission or not, and given the fact that Konami is a Japanese arcade company at its heart - the type of company that is traditionally very resistant to let the "gaijin" have anything to do with their studios - anyone in the industry with a modicum of sense could have seen this coming a mile away.
If you want to make a remake of a game you really love, and you're skilled enough to get into the game industry at all, then do what everyone else does: Get into the industry, put in your time, and once you've got a proven track record, approach the company and work out an actual, licensed deal to remake the IP. Anything else is just going to lead to tears, and it's your own fault for crying.
This was pure stupidity from start to finish. Putting considerable time and effort into developing a game which you know you do not have the rights to publish is generally not a bad idea. When the game you are developing is a remake of a game which still has considerable commercial value, and which is owned by a company which does not have a long history of encouraging third party modding and development, it is dafter still.
Konami own the rights to Metal Gear Solid. If you want a remake of it, tell them so (letters, e-mails, petitions, questions from the floor at trade-shows - whatever). Companies like making money and if they think there is an audience for a remake of an old game, then they will generally do the remake. If they don't, then... there's not really much you can do.
If you want to make a stealth-action game, then make one. Konami own the rights to Metal Gear Solid, but they do not own the rights to "everything that looks a bit like Metal Gear Solid". There are no shortage of games out there, both AAA and indie, which take a degree of inspiration from Metal Gear Solid. If you have a team with the skills to make a game as ambitious as a full remake of Metal Gear Solid would be, then go that route.
But trying to make a game which you know it is vanishingly unlikely you will be allowed to publish and then whinging when you are not allowed to publish it is just stupid.