A New Type Of Metal Gear Solid Game Then? You Betcha.

Hideo Kojima has suggested via Twitter that the new Metal Gear Solid: Rising game, being developed by a band of Kojima Productions upstarts, will bring new people to the franchise.

He posted:

“The next MGS… “RISING.” this game will create new users, be developed by the new generation, a new MGS.”

Very little is known about the game at this stage, aside from the fact that it will feature “Lightning Bolt Action” and star Metal Gear Solid 2’s Raiden.

Grand Theft Auto's An XBOX-Connected Franchise Now? Right.

I know Sony won’t pay for exclusives and I think that’s admirable. After all, would I prefer Grand Theft Auto IV DLC exclusivity for 12 months, or a whole new Wipeout game? The $50million Microsoft paid for that GTA DLC is probably in a similar ball-park to what would be spent on a mid-large PSN release (perhaps less) and thus, absolutely I’d take the latter. But when it comes to franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy, I do wonder why Sony are letting Microsoft bully them.

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The MGS: Peace Walker Team Are Supposedly "Not Great Friends" With The MGS: Rising Team.

Ever noticed anything frosty between Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid: Rising projects? Kojima-san himself has been quick to describe Peace Walker as a true sequel in the past. And it seems the actual teams within Kojima Productions are not getting on too great regarding the projects either. In an exclusive interview with GamePro, Hdeo Kojima stated that the two teams “are not good friends”.

Kojima cited the greater resources that the Rising team are getting as the reason for all the office envy. “If you could imagine the PSP team looking at the Rising team,” explained Kojima, “they have all the money and specs.”

Surprisingly, Kojima was quite buoyant about the whole affair. “It’s interesting for me to see the team members act in this way,” laughed Kojima, “This was never before because it was always just one small team. Now we are much bigger.”

We’re assuming from Kojima’s manner, that the envy is not going to develop into full on hatred. However, it seems the Rising vs. Peace Walker drama is set to continue.

Metal Gear Solid Even Confuses Its Creator.

It’s often said that if a writer is not sure of his fiction, how can those reading it know better? This statement rings true with Metal Gear Solid. Despite our deep love for the franchise (and the surprisingly helpful Metal Gear Solid Database) we still find the intricacies of the saga baffling. That’s ok though, because Kojima himself doesn’t know much more.

When interviewed by Eurogamer he declared, “Actually, strange you ask, because I personally get confused too about the whole timeline and saga of Metal Gear Solid.” He continued, “This is especially tricky when you create the future first and then go back in time to create something new. There are a lot of small aspects where sometimes it doesn’t match completely.”

Speaking of the future, Kojima admitted that Metal Gear Solid Rising is a good fit for the younger Kojima Productions staff. This hints once again at the game being focused on action, rather than the deep story telling of previous Metal Gear Solid titles. As for Peace Walker, Kojima states that it’s a game for the more experienced staff. “The younger staff couldn’t really understand [Peace Walker's] background, and since I made the concept and overall storyline, I thought that I would go more deeply in, because for me it was more understandable a setting.”

Rising will be set in a future universe less dependent on Kojima’s fiction.

Microsoft Have "Levelled The Third-Party Playing Field". Apparently.

Most developers are going multiplatform these days. There are a number of reasons for it – namely that games are so expensive to produce. Metal Gear Solid has long made a name for itself on the Playstation 3 (despite that XBOX port of MGS2). Alas, are Microsoft happy Metal Gear is coming to the 360. You bet your bottom dollar:

“I still think exclusive content is really important,” said Microsoft VP Shane Kim, “First of all, in games, we’ve said for a long time that a key part of our strategy with Xbox 360 was a level third-party playing field. Now we’ve effectively done that with Metal Gear Solid coming to the Xbox 360.

“The economics are such that third parties also have to support multiple platforms, and you can’t ignore Xbox 360. It’s the second leading platform.”

It’s interesting to hear Microsoft cite a serious identity crisis as their main strategy for the XBOX 360. Essentially admittedly succeeded in homogenizing the market. It’s pretty much to Sony’s credit that they managed to build a strong first-party development team when they did. That’s something Microsoft can’t ever touch. Though we’re sure they’d love to.

Peace Walker Appears To Have Kojima's Typical Visual Prowess.

Although Kojima did cite Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots as his last ever Metal Gear game, he’s decided to return to the series that made him a star one more time – with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Speaking in Famitsu, Kojima describes Peace Walker as “his personal MGS5″ and that the MGS4 team are working on it.

But what of Metal Gear Solid Rising? Kojima bills it as “a completely different kind of action than what has appeared in the series so far,” perhaps fuelling speculation that it will be a Ninja Gaiden-esque title that would fit Raiden’s character well. As a producer, Kojima admitted to being “deeply involved”, which is smart considering expectations are literally sky-high for the game.

Incidentally, check out a few new screens of Peace Walker over at Kotaku.

Metal Gear Solid Rising Will Run On A Totally New Engine.

The biggest question on our lips since the multi-platform announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Rising has been: how will the addition of a platform skew the output? We know the XBOX is a fine system, but it also lack disc and definite hard-drive space — something that’s had us pondering whether MGS:R will end up being a lesser product than its older brother.

In Kojima Production’s latest podcast they assure fans it won’t be a problem at all. In fact, Kojima Productions even promise that Metal Gear Solid: Rising will end up looking better than Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. And they hope to achieve this by developing a completely new engine for the PS3, 360 and PC.

Only time will tell.