Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain Doesn't Support Pre-Loading on PC

Many PC games support pre-loading, but Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain won't be one of them. Metal Gear Solid community manager Robert Allen Peeler has confirmed the stealth-action game won't support the feature, which he admitted was a "pretty common practice" in the PC space.

Asked by a fan why this is, Peeler replied, "I don't have a specific reason," noting that he was circling back with the development team in an attempt to find out.

Though you can't pre-load The Phantom Pain, you can pre-purchase it today from Steam. The game will officially unlock on September 1 New Zealand time, which is actually August 31 at 5 AM PDT / 8 AM EDT.

The console versions of The Phantom Pain, meanwhile, do support pre-loading. They will unlock on September 1 at 12:01 AM EDT / August 31 at 9:01 PM PDT.

Pre-loading allows players to download games ahead of their release so they can start playing immediately at launch. This is a particularly nice feature, as file sizes for games today can be quite large.

According to GameSpot's sources, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima will leave Konami after The Phantom Pain ships next month. Just recently, a Nikkei report exposed the troubling culture inside of Konami.

The PC version of The Phantom Pain was originally supposed to launch on September 15, but Konami this week brought forward the game's release date to match up with the console version. Konami also announced that everyone who preorders The Phantom Pain on Steam gets a free copy of Ground Zeroes.

In other Phantom Pain news, Konami has published a new trailer and confirmed the game's multiplayer mode--Metal Gear Online--will not be available at launch.