On another timeline, we could have had a Metal Gear Solid first-person shooter made with Vince Zampella

At today's DICE Summit, a gathering of industry veterans paid tribute to Call of Duty and Titanfall co-creator Vince Zampella, who died in December. Joining the likes of Todd Howard, Randy Pitchford and Ted Price was Hideo Kojima, who, according to Gamefile, sought advice from Zampella when founding his own studio Kojima Productions.

“He gave me a lot of support and advice,” Kojima said. “He showed me his studio, and I incorporated some of the good aspects into our own studio.”

Kojima also revealed that he had discussed the possibility of developing a Metal Gear Solid first-person shooter with Zampella, just before leaving Konami. Given the timing—Kojima left Konami in October 2015—it sounds like it would have been a Respawn first-person shooter. At the time, Respawn was working on Titanfall 2.

Separately, Geoff Keighley, who was also in attendance at the event, says Kojima had "many discussions" with Zampella about a first-person Metal Gear Solid game. It's hard to glean how advanced these discussions were, but if there was more than one discussion it was probably more than just a fun idea.

Of the few Metal Gear games made without Kojima's direct involvement, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the most widely loved (though notably, it wasn't embraced at launch). It proved that the series could extend beyond Kojima's "tactical espionage action" focus, with Platinum Games turning in a blisteringly fast character-action game.

Metal Gear is still in the hands of Konami, and Kojima's now working on Physint and OD, so it's highly unlikely we'll ever see a first-person Metal Gear Solid game. Still, it's fun to imagine what it could have looked like.