Update: I talked to Konami today about Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's forward operating bases, how they tie into your single-player Mother Base, and what I got wrong about the FOBs in relation to Metal Gear Online. The new intel is inside!

First off, I want to apologize that I got FOBs wrong. I'm sorry. Here's the (real) deal: FOBs are indeed extensions of you Mother Base, but they are solely related to the single-player title, not Metal Gear Online. You can attack friend's FOBs, and if they're playing and online at the time, you can fight them on an FOB. If they're not online then you'll just battle against the A.I. staff at the FOB. You cannot attack a friend's FOB if they aren't online.

Konami's not talking about what you can specifically extract from an FOB, but a representative I talked did say you could steal staff and weapons from an FOB.

Hopefully we'll learn more about the actual Metal Gear Online soon.

Original Story: Metal Gears fans anxiously await the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on September 1, and apart from being able to continue the story from Ground Zeroes, players will also get to play the latest iteration of Metal Gear Online. Konami hasn't talked a lot about this aspect of MGS V, but here are a few new details.

A key component to MGO are forward operating bases or FOBs. These are related to the Mother Base of your single-player campaign, but are separate installations that serve as the battlegrounds of MGO. In the multiplayer component of MGS V you'll attack and defend FOBs for resources and other spoils in 8v8 battles (or 6v6 on the older systems). Your single-player Mother Base does have an optional online component whereby you can infiltrate friends' bases, but this is separate from Metal Gear Online.

The single-player component of MGS V, however, is related to MGO in that you will be able to carry over some cosmetic extras from MGS V to MGO.

Konami has confirmed that Team Sneak and other modes from previous iterations of Metal Gear Online are returning, and that MGO in MGS V not only features its own dedicated maps, but also those inspired by the game's single-player portion.

Gamers can play as Snake or Revolver Ocelot, with more characters to be announced, and MGO developer Kojima Productions Los Angeles has confirmed in the past that there is a player progression system.The game contains multiple classes at launch, thus leading to the insinuation that others will follow after the game comes out. Microtransactions for MGO have been rumored, but we do not have confirmation of that as of the time of this writing.

For more on Metal Gear Online, check out this previous trailer. For more on the single-player and gameplay in general, here are my answers to a host of reader questions.