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Konami has confirmed the release date for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, the first salvo in a two-game series that together will encompass Metal Gear Solid V. The good news is, it's not far off: Ground Zeroes will launch on March 18th 2014, for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Ground Zeroes takes place in the 1970s and finds Solid Snake infiltrating a secret base in Cuba. The Phantom Pain, the second half of the story, will pick up the tale nine years later. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has described Ground Zeroes as a smaller taster game - a "gateway" into the larger story of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Speaking with Xbox Wire to celebrate the announcement of the release date, Kojima has also explained a little more about how the game's new open world design has been implemented. "A more accurate way to describe it would be a 'stealth simulator' in an open world environment," he says. "The open world elements exist to remove the rails from the stealth experience, allowing players to freely plan their own routes and experiment with their own unique infiltration strategies. However, at its heart, the gameplay is all about stealth and we don't intend to shift the focus away from that."

Both the PlayStation and Xbox versions of Ground Zeroes will come with their own exclusive content. Xbox owners will get a standalone mission starring Raiden called Jamais Vu, in which the cyber-ninja battles body snatchers. PlayStation gamers get the Deja Vu mission, which replaces Snake with retro character models from 1997.