Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain’s doctor looks a lot like head transplant doctor, Sergio Canavero

If you look into the gaming community and go deeper than news sites, you will find excitable communities like NeoGaf and Reddit. Often times, these places can offer deeper insight to games, a place to share thoughts on games, and even breaking news/leaks; sometimes they can blow things out of proportion that seem silly.

Recently, the sites have honed in on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and how the doctor from the game looks an awful lot like Dr. Canavero (the doctor that is working on the head transplant project named HEAVEN).

Here's an image of the two from the NeoGaf post on the subject:

Yes, it appears as though we are looking at the same man, right down to the facial hair. There are other similarities that aren't simply skin deep, Dr. Canavero has a scientific article on Gemini, the spinal cord fusion protocol and HEAVEN, his head transplant surgery. On top of that, Dr. Canavero caused a woman to feel phantom pain on a 3rd arm that did not exist after he performed brain surgery on her.

What do all of these variables have to do with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain? Well, the title of the game and a few chapters of the game fall in line with the details given above:

So what is Dr. Canavero going to do about it? Kotaku UK called him up:

“I went to the Polizia Postale [the authority in charge of this kind of thing here in Italy] and filed a complaint towards Mr.Kojima. There is also a Twitter account that is not mine, so I reported this to the Police too, they will now investigate both the matters. In the meantime my lawyer is sending a letter to the Japanese company [Konami] to ask for compensation [for using my image without permission].”

Why would Dr. Canavero look to receive compensation? Money, of course.

“By the way, do you know how much this game is going to cost? And how many copies will it sell?” The Kotaku journalist estimated that around "4 million units at 60 euros a pop." Laughing Dr. Canavero replied, “Wow!!! Sixty Euros? Multiplied by 4 or 5 MILLION? That would cover the whole operation for Valery and then some! We're talking about an insane amount of money!”

Is this real?

This is what the community has pieced together, it might be real it – might not. It seems a little far fetched that Kojima and Konami would dig so deep to create a character, but until Kojima outright denies or admits to it we won't know.

In the past the Metal Gear Solid games have had nearly supernatural elements like people who have lived for a over a hundred years (The End), controlled hornets (The Pain) and vampires, so having a doctor that does controversial procedures doesn't sound like a head case.