Metal Gear Solid 2's source code has been leaked on 4chan

By  Quinton O'Connor Published May 1, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Quinton is a Staff Writer from the United States. In his youth, Quinton was ridiculed for making video game ranking lists instead of paying attention in math class. In adulthood, people sometimes pay him for it. Life's a trip.

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It's always an exciting day when a beloved video game's source code leaks on to the internet. We've seen such tremendous good times with projects like Ship of Harkinian, for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, bringing fresh coats of paint and incredible mods galore to timeless works of art.

If you just so happen to have dreamed big for Metal Gear Solid 2 modding, the world may now be your oyster, as the full source code just hit the net. It's not the original PlayStation 2 version, but rather, the 2011 HD remaster, so hey. It even comes in (relatively!) crisp 720p. These are, I've seen it said, uncompressed assets, including a whopping 30 gigs' worth of unused material.

If Only It Happened A Single Day Sooner

May 1, 2026. That is, as of this writing, today. Would that this had occured on April 30. MGS2 fans know exactly what I'm on about. But I digress—let's dig in.

This is actually the PlayStation Vita and Xbox 360 ports' code, from what I'm reading right now, specifically from work done by support studio Armature. For most of us, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 is still the way to go for MGS2, but once the ball gets rolling on decompiling the code, who knows what the future might bring?

I'm still in the process of verifying certain details here. Kotaku, for instance, is reporting that this is actually devoid of assets, which runs quite contrary to the above tweet. Even if it's "just" the code, however, this remains a tremendous milestone for games preservation and for the modding scene for years to come. As for where this leak took place, the answer's 4chan; I won't link directly to either of the pertinent threads on there, but the Kotaku article has been gracious enough to do so for us.

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As there is conflicting information right now concerning the exact details of the leak's contents, this article may be updated further before day's end. Regardless, it's a pretty good time to be a Metal Gear fan.

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