As fans of games, we’re used to having the back half of the year become stuffed with new releases especially in October and November. It’s how things are these days. The mad rush towards fall began yesterday it seems as both Avalanche Studios and Kojima Productions made a couple of announcements regarding highly anticipated titles.

In what was supposed to be a big announcement today on IGN, the video that was planned to be shown leaked early yesterday revealing that the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is ready to come out of the shadows on September 1. Whoops.

Kojima also confirmed that this would be his last entry in the series after being on it for 27 years, though we’ve heard that before so who knows. He did leave the door open for the franchise to continue and interestingly enough confirmed that Snake would be more of a silent protagonist in this game, choosing to react to his surrounds rather than talk through them. An interesting choice considering all of the controversy bringing Kiefer Sutherland in to replace series mainstay David Hayter.

In a different surprise announcement, Avalanche Studios also went on record to confirm a release date for their upcoming game Mad Max. As it turns out, they’ve also selected September 1. The reveal also confirmed that last gen entries for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have been dropped in favor of current gen consoles and PC. I’d expect a big presence at this year’s E3 considering that we still don’t have a ton of information on this title outside of a very pretty CG trailer.

Needless to say, it’s going to be a busy day on September 1. Considering we’re already starting to getting announcements for games releasing this fall, buckle up. It’s going to be a busy season.