RARE WAREZ ARCHIVE / 002 METAL GEAR SOLID + GOD OF WAR 5 SKIN

Handmade miniature game cases, custom PS5 skins, and two tributes from the early years of NEO4IC.

When we decide to make a limited release, I feel a responsibility to give people something worth owning. Scarcity alone doesn’t create that value. If we’re asking someone to care about one of a hundred or a couple hundred pieces, there should be something in the design, the production, or the experience that earns that attention.

A lot of what we design comes from wanting to keep living in the worlds that were there for us when we were younger. We spent hours inside these games, getting to know their characters, studying their artwork, and experiencing things that stayed with us long after we turned the console off. Making these tributes gives us a way to carry those worlds into our lives today and share that connection with people who understand it.

During the early years of NEO4IC, we were figuring out how far we could take that idea with the equipment and resources we had. Two releases I still think about are our Metal Gear Solid and God of War tributes. Both came from a personal love for these franchises, and both became projects that extended well beyond the shirts themselves.

That care starts with the shirt itself. We create our own fabrics and make all the inks we use to print our shirts. The material, the feel of the print, and the way the artwork comes across are all part of the decisions we make for a release. The extras gave us another place to put that same attention.

METAL GEAR SOLID

A huge part of Metal Gear Solid’s identity lives in Yoji Shinkawa’s artwork. Even before you know his name, you recognize the feeling of it. His expressive brushwork gives the characters a sense of movement and atmosphere that became inseparable from the franchise.

We wanted to carry some of that feeling into our shirt. For the back, we worked toward a cinematic composition with that loose, watercolor-like quality. On the front, we took a different approach, drawing from the game’s interface and arranging elements across the shirt so it felt almost like an operating display.

Those two sides gave us a way to express different parts of the same world: the artwork that draws you into it, and the interface you spend hours looking through while you play.

For the first 100 shirts sold, we also made a miniature PRISM CD-case keychain.

Each case had its own custom cover and tiny printed inserts using graphics we created for the release. Inside, we placed a holographic sticker shaped like a disc. Every insert and every disc sticker had to be fitted by hand, one case at a time.

They were small objects, but making a hundred of them took a surprising amount of work. At that scale, even a simple assembly step becomes a considerable part of the project.

That care was what made them special to me. Someone could wear the shirt and also carry this little game case with them, complete with its own artwork and holographic disc inside. The response was encouraging, especially knowing how much time had gone into something that could fit in your palm.

GOD OF WAR

God of War III is still one of my favorite PlayStation games ever made. The gameplay, the scale, and the amount of work Santa Monica Studio put into it completely won me over. It made me a fan of the studio and gave me a lot of excitement for what they would do next.

When we planned our God of War tribute, I wanted to put that enthusiasm into every part of the release, including how we announced it.

THE LAUNCH ARTWORK

We created custom 3D promotional posters to introduce the shirt. Kratos is known for taking on massive creatures and other gods, so we wanted the scene to carry that same sense of power and scale.

The composition placed him looking directly into the camera, with a massive creature behind him and chrome spikes enclosing the scene. We wanted it to feel like a modern interpretation of his world through NEO4IC’s visual style.

The artwork was produced using ZBrush and Cinema 4D. It gave us room to work with depth, lighting, and the relationship between Kratos and the creature looming behind him. The chrome added a sharp, reflective element around that enormous presence.

The result was pretty rad. It gave the launch its own visual identity and let us put more of our excitement for the franchise into the campaign.

THE CUSTOM PS5 SKINS

The PlayStation 5 was still relatively new, and people were excited to own one. It felt like an opportunity to make something for the console itself, something that could become part of the space where people experienced the game.

We designed a custom PS5 skin and produced it in-house at our warehouse, using the same vinyl printing and cutting equipment we use for our cards and holographic posters.

The first 150 people who purchased the shirt could choose the skin that matched their PS5 version, and we included it with their order.

That added a different responsibility to the design. A shirt moves through someone’s wardrobe. A console skin might stay in their room for years, visible every time they sit down to play. I wanted the graphic to feel like NEO4IC while respecting how much someone might care about the console they were putting it on.

It became one of my favorite campaigns we’ve done. People could wear the tribute out in the world, then bring another part of it into the place where they spent time with the game.

FOR THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THEM

Looking back, these releases capture something I still care about: finding ways to give people more through the work we put into a project.

For Metal Gear Solid, that meant assembling miniature game cases by hand. For God of War, it meant creating an entire 3D campaign and producing custom console skins ourselves. Those details belong to the history of these shirts just as much as the graphics printed on them.

These were small releases from a specific chapter of NEO4IC, and they will never be produced again. There won’t be another launch where someone can order a fresh one. The shirts that exist are the ones people already own.

If you have one, I hope knowing this story makes you appreciate it a little more. Your shirt carries the work, the decisions, and the enthusiasm we put into that moment. If you still have the miniature case or the PS5 skin that came with it, you also have one of the extras we made in those first groups of 100 and 150.

I’m proud that something we made has stayed in your wardrobe, on your keys, or on the console you spend your evenings playing. That is a personal place for our work to end up.

The Rare Wares Archive is our way of preserving that history and recognizing the people who own a part of it. These pieces won’t come back, and owning one connects you to a chapter of NEO4IC that can’t be repeated.

Thank you for giving that work a place in your life.