No Metal Gear Solid 5 from Kojima

According to Konami president Fumiaki Tanaka, Hideo Kojima is finally moving on from Metal Gear franchise and is working on the concept for something involving neither metal nor gear. (I don’t know if that’s actually true, but it ain’t Metal Gear related.) Tanaka couldn’t go into any real detail and said that we shouldn’t be waiting on an announcement anytime this year.

It’ll be until after Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Online both have had their time in the spotlight before Kojima’s intentions are revealed. It’s hard to really take a guess at what sort of game Kojima might be doing, because between Metal Gear, Zone of the Enders and Boktai/Lunar Knights, he has quite a varied resume.

Initially, Hideo Kojima announced that he would be retiring as director of the Metal Gear series after Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and would leave his position open to another person for Metal Gear Solid 4, as he had announced he would after Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. As a joke, the new director was announced as "Alan Smithee", but in R, a 400-page book bundled with Metal Gear Solid 3's Japanese "Premium Package", the director was revealed to be Shuyo Murata, co-writer of MGS3 and director of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. He has also contributed humorous easter eggs to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. However, it was announced that Kojima will be co-directing the game with Murata after substantial negative fan reaction, including death threats.