Hideo Kojima to Continue Working on Metal Gear Solid

Konami USA has confirmed to Shacknews that "Hideo Kojima will continue working on Metal Gear Solid games," though the company would not clarify if this meant Kojima would be writing or directing future entries.

During the E3 2010 roundtable discussion with Shigenobu Matsuyama, the producer of Metal Gear Solid Rising, a question was raised about Rising's place within the Metal Gear Solid canon.To this, Mr. Matsuyama's response, via translator, seemed to hint the franchise creator Hideo Kojima might not be done with MGS.

I've been asked a lot, 'Is this going to be a side-story or spin-off to the MGS series?', but what I'm positioning is that there will be a Hideo Kojima game that is MGS, but what we are planning as Kojima Productions is have this Raiden Rising as almost as a standard so that there's an MGS and the Rising going back-and-forth in the future."

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which Hideo Kojima wrote, produced, and directed.

While Konami's confirmation could be referring to the Metal Gear Solid 3 project for the Nintendo 3DS, it is likely that Kojima will be working on new projects in the Metal Gear Solid universe not based on existing titles. Given the developer's history of claiming an MGS project was his last and directing another, this isn't a huge jump in logic. Metal Gear Solid 4 was to be the last MGS game directed by Kojima, but he then went on to write, direct, and produce the recently released Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

While no announcement was made at E3 2010 with regards to Kojima's next project, perhaps we may hear something at Tokyo Game Show 2010 this fall. It will also be interesting to see if the next game goes multiplatform as Kojima Productions is already developing a PS3, Xbox 360, and PC engine for MGS Rising.

Kojima is the executive producer on Metal Gear Solid Rising, which is an action game set between Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4 featuring Raiden as the main character. A version of Metal Gear Solid 3 is in the pipe for Nintendo's new 3DS handheld, as well. He is also serving as executive producer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which is in development at Spain-based MercurySteam Entertainment.