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Kojima's 'next project' will be 'taboo'

Konami's noted designer begins posting Twitter updates about mysterious new title that will challenge social norms, potentially end his career.

Hideo Kojima is currently wrapping up work on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which will continue the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops storyline on the PSP on June 8 in North America. However, it would seem as if Konami's celebrated game designer has already begun to fix his eyes on what lies ahead. Spotted by Japanese gaming site Andria Sang, Kojima has begun discussing his "next project" on Twitter.

Could a new Zone of the Enders feature hot mech-on-mech action?

Could a new Zone of the Enders feature hot mech-on-mech action?

"I'm thinking about the casting for my next title," Kojima said through his Japanese-language Twitter feed. "The project plan still hasn't reached a detailed level, but everything is advancing simultaneously in my head. Title, game design, story, characters, setting research, the mech that appear, casting, graphic direction, sound, beginning and ending, the major story sequences. It comes together naturally in my head."

Kojima went on to bemoan the distraction of his mysterious next project in a subsequent Twitter update, before offering a cryptic teaser about the game's subject matter.

"The next project will challenge a certain type of taboo," he wrote. "If I mess up, I'll probably have to leave the industry. However, I don't want to pass by avoiding that. I turn 47 this year. It's been 24 years since I started making games. Today, I got an ally who would happily support me in that risk. Although it's just one person. For a start, it's good." Kojima has since offered no other details about the project through his Twitter feed (though he apparently did have Chinese food for lunch).

Beyond Peace Walker, Kojima is also involved in Mercury Steam's reboot of Konami's classic vampire-hunter series, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. That game is expected to arrive for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime in 2010. In October, he also expressed interest in reviving Kojima Productions' acclaimed Zone of the Enders franchise, a mech-based third-person action series that has lain dormant since 2003.

232 Comments

  • maxermaximus

    Posted Aug 18, 2010 11:55 pm GMT

    Actually, at the end of Peace Walker, Paz reveals that shes a villain and says she is older then 16.

  • Blaze_Hrimfaxi

    Posted Aug 14, 2010 10:10 am GMT

    Considering Peace Walker had missions where Snake dates a 16 year old girl and another man i cant imagine how much more taboo Kojima can get.

  • tyco_ex

    Posted Apr 20, 2010 2:13 pm GMT

    When he says taboo (assuming it's not just BS to build up hype) I think he is referring to a gaming taboo, not a social taboo. Something that you aren't supposed to do in games, like combining genre Y with genre X or not having an expected feature in a type of game or something along those lines.

  • blueblur87

    Posted Apr 19, 2010 3:35 pm GMT

    Taboos, let me think... interactive ability to rape people or have full sex on-screen, mutilate peoples body and faces using power tools and sharp implements, torture people, kill ridiculous numbers of people by crushing/shredding them in a machine, take peoples skin off... generally gory stuff. Or, maybe it's like what other people are saying - anti religious, anti capitalist, or maybe the other way round - pro communist, pro anarchist, or promoting some other ideology that is considered taboo, such as controlling the gene pool.

  • Petri87

    Posted Apr 19, 2010 2:28 pm GMT

    "potentially end his career" I don't know about the rest of you guys but I'll call this bullsh!t marketing hype. Just like Peter M's "quote" about Fable 3 pissing ppl of. Granted Peter never publicly said that but on a damn bus stop to some twitter-whoring games journalist.

  • yang4200

    Posted Apr 19, 2010 12:01 am GMT

    how many time have he say he was gonna quit something but still work on the next title and the next and the next...

  • yosuke_hitomi

    Posted Apr 18, 2010 9:06 pm GMT

    zone of the enders huh,hope they make it look like armored core series.

  • auron11022

    Posted Apr 18, 2010 3:02 pm GMT

    Hype hype hype hype. He will say anything to get hype for his games. This isn't the first time he has announced he will do a Taboo game... Now refresh my memory...... How have any of his games been taboo?

  • Timstuff

    Posted Apr 17, 2010 2:44 pm GMT

    "Surprise Abortion" featuring full Wiimote / Move support?
    "Pedobear: The game"?
    "Holy building desecrator"?
    "Mien Kampf: The Game" ?

  • yukine

    Posted Apr 17, 2010 2:27 pm GMT

    Is he making an abortion simulation game?

  • shkar

    Posted Apr 17, 2010 1:46 pm GMT

    So KOJIMA is getting married ,,right??
    Honestly I do respect this person and I believe he has the most creative mind in the video game industry.......

  • ronnieo54

    Posted Apr 17, 2010 5:10 am GMT

    @ kuroshiro99 LMAO, i was going to say the same thing! hmm my new guess is its going to be some sort of back-woods farm simulator where you have breed and raise both cattle and an inbred clan of hillbillies. also, they'll worship satan and eat babies. in 3d.

  • kuroshiro99

    Posted Apr 17, 2010 3:08 am GMT

    hes going to make a game with a hermaphrodite as the main character..... no wait.. hes already done that.. REMEMBER RAIDEN!!! what could be more taboo ... ah.. main charachters primary love interest is his .... * drum roll *... sister.. ROFL..

  • 64-bit

    Posted Apr 16, 2010 11:52 pm GMT

    @ Miroku_of_Nite1 you masonic? do you know what this eye symbol mean? are you satanist?

  • scarththegrim

    Posted Apr 16, 2010 4:19 pm GMT

    3 thoughts, listed in order of relevance:

    Gaming + Taboo? I don't care if he did say mech, only one game franchise meets that criteria: "Manhunt"!

    Then again... this is the man who invented Metal Gear, and he did say " I turn 47 this year". Decipher the code... could we have a new HITMAN entry?

    Finally, "If I mess up, I'll probably have to leave the industry". Could we finally be seeing Duke Nukem Forever?

  • digitalheadbutt

    Posted Apr 16, 2010 9:02 am GMT

    New ZOE would be welcome. It would rock on current gen. technology. The ones on the PS3 look pretty great for that time frame.

  • planetvash112

    Posted Apr 16, 2010 8:57 am GMT

    It's called: Metal Quear soild: snake eater LULZ

  • yixingtpot

    Posted Apr 16, 2010 7:26 am GMT

    HIs new game will be called Fancy Pants and come bundled with a Hot Pink PS3. The protagonist will be openly gay and use a spritz bottle as a weapon that sprays knock out drops. When his enemies wake up, they'll have sore bums.

  • Virtual_Erkan

    Posted Apr 16, 2010 3:39 am GMT

    My dad is 47 too. Well Kojima looks pretty young for his age.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Apr 16, 2010 1:38 am GMT

    47!? He looks about 30, tops! Whatever Kojima thinks up is generally something that becomes memorable, so I haves high hopes for whatever this new idea of his might be.

  • Hanzoadam

    Posted Apr 16, 2010 12:18 am GMT

    Old news, I think its something to do with DS

  • SlowMotionKarma

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 9:49 pm GMT

    @Captain Herlock
    MGS1 was a triumph of gaming. It brought us something we hadn't seen before. You HAD to sneak around, and really think (at the time) to outwit your enemies. On top of that, it had an interesting and complex story that dealt with political/war issues on top of providing some great-written fiction.
    MGS4 was total bs. I literally just held "forward" and aimed and shot. That was the whole gameplay experience for me. Sneaking was completely optional, unlike the first game. People actually told me, "the game is better if you just sneak around." Why pretend to have to sneak around if you can easily just walk through it all? Snake was so awesome because he was a lone wolf who HAD to pick his battles and outwit enemies to complete the mission. MGS4 I guess was trying to give the player the option, but it totally killed the "espionage action" I loved from the first game. What's more, the storyline and hours upon hours of cutscenes were 1-Kojima impressing himself with needless over-the-top fight scenes/poop jokes and his MGS2-level senseless storyline, and 2-Sony tossing money at cutscenes to try and make "production values"=game quality.
    I love my PS3, I love MGS1 and I love ZOE2. Just because someone doesn't act the cow and join the herd of MGS4 fanatics doesn't mean I'm a fanboy. I value quality. Pretending to have a deep, challenging game doesn't make it so.

  • X-RS

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 8:30 pm GMT

    well, with MECHA mentioned and GRAPHIC direction, we can expect some wicked cel-shaded action!!!!

    as for the taboo subject, zoe had ada (ai), politics, ratial tension and of course just cause for military actions. i hope he dont bring some lolilita stuff (thats typical in japan). cant say gay is new, or that intriguing. honestly no offense, ive just seen it a lot in the media recently, and isnt that taboo now.

    wtf does it mean?!?!?

  • mattdv

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 7:32 pm GMT

    Man, you can fit so much more in 140 characters if you write in Japanese.

  • sexytyrant69 posted Apr 15, 2010 4:47 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    sexytyrant69

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 4:47 pm GMT (hide)

    and it's gonna be a PS3 exclusive.
    Typical Kojima...........SIGH...........................

  • HollowNinja

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 3:46 pm GMT

    The only thing I can think of that is taboo for a video game is a game whose theme is anti-gaming. Religion, politics, sex> There have been plenty of games with all those those. Pedohilia? Necrophilia? Homosexuality? Incest? All of those have been in games before. So I'm really curious here.

  • flammable_zeus

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 3:13 pm GMT

    This will hopefully teach some people that videogames =/= real life. I'm surprised we can have anything more taboo than running around massacring innocent people.

    Judging from what most people seem to think the subject will be, it looks like most people think love is more taboo in society than killing thousands of people.

  • thingta42

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 2:51 pm GMT

    Zone of Enders, Doloris'i Anime really kinda got me into the universe, enough for me to want a ZOE game actually.

    Not really into the whole mecha thing though. But still im kinda looking forward to a ZOE game.

  • frazzle00

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 2:42 pm GMT

    @CaptainHerlock

    Having played MGS4 on my PS3, I would say yes, the game is definitely overrated. All that naive political posturing, juvenile attempts at humour, gameplay that hasn't really changed much since MGS2, and worst of all, overly long and in my opinion often unnecessary cutscenes that kill any momentum that the actual gameplay segments may have, made the game pretty mediocre to me. Please stop with all the fanboy conspiracy theories. Just because someone doesn't like Kojima's latest titles, doesn't make them a fanboy. Different strokes for different folks!

  • Rhys555

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 2:29 pm GMT

    He's such a big sexy F***.

  • ShockG707

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 2:06 pm GMT

    My guess is homosexuality, after all he gave us Raiden.

  • Darth_Nicolas

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 1:24 pm GMT

    We need a ZOE 3 already!

  • Shinkada

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 12:52 pm GMT

    blah blah Kojima is overrated MGS hasn't been good since the first one Snake Eater had an interesting story but terrible gameplay MGS4 was completely mediocre etc.

    This could be awesome, because the guy obviously does have some skill in making games even if he never really learnt how to focus it. He's very hit or miss, I mean, MGS1 was utterly amazing, and then there's 2. Which wasn't only crap because of Raiden mind you, also because the story in general was just idiotic.

    And, well, Zone of the Enders 2, while nothing to write home about story-wise, had some of the coolest mech designs ever and is overall the second best mech game I've ever played, behind Another Century's Episode 3 which was essentially based on the ZoE engine.

    I really hope it is ZoE3. Even if it isn't, though, I hope when he says it's something taboo that it's something interesting as opposed to his MGS2 style occasional hating America thing. (Not sure if he actually does hate America, or if he was just using the Presidential title for impact, but damn if it didn't come off as the former.)

    ps: I'm Australian, no national pride here, the guy just likes to flick between genius, mediocre, and complete nutcase.

  • MrKyleKatarn

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 12:49 pm GMT

    I'd suggest just make a really good game with alot of naked women in it. The boobs and the quality of the game will sell it.

  • wiidominance

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 12:34 pm GMT

    taboo in this case can only mean = something serious politically sensitive. I just hope he gets his research right. Though, it would be cool to quit ur carrer in a "bang", its the most interesting way to end it. also, he's 47 ????? seriously ? being stressed to hell yet he doesn't look 47 at all ...

  • Barighm

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 12:22 pm GMT

    Meh. Probably nudity, sex, or a homosexual protaganist. Really not that big a deal, but for some, it's worth banning your accounts over.

  • PumpkinBoogie

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 11:51 am GMT

    Damn...now I'm gonna be all wondering what the hell this game's subject matter (even the actual game) is. And you know he'll tease us for like a good 2 yrs or so before we even get a whiff of what it is. Freaking torturous genius..damn him!! *shakes fist* LOL

  • oskuuu

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 11:41 am GMT

    if this taboo is something obscene, vulgar and dirty; the most i hope whatever it is, it's something new

  • abbnormmal

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:42 am GMT

    The best selling video game of late had you go through an airport shooting civilians, what can this guy do that would make him have to "Leave the industry"?

  • CaptainHerlock

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:39 am GMT

    For those calling him an ego-maniac and claiming his games are terrible, would you be saying that if Metal Gear Solid 4 was released on the 360 like you hoped and prayed it would? Sounds more like sour grapes than anything.

  • SciFiCat

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:30 am GMT

    And this class is how in marketing we generate something called "Hype", learn it well.

  • magemaximus

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:29 am GMT

    Wow, this guy can't get over himself.

  • Incubus420

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:23 am GMT

    Now I don't know about you but I think he is talking about ZOE 3: The last runner. It has been far to long and the game is obviosuly ready to be released to this new generation of gamers. Mech games have been crap for over 7 years now and it is time for Hideo to bring back this fast action Mech title. For those of you that like FPSs this is probably a good Japanese styled game for you. If they try and Milk more money out of the MGS series I think I will $hit my self. They are putting snake to work way to often these days and really should work on orginal IPs. Some new ideas could be: Online Mech battles with huge sandbox levels with tons of disturctable environments. (I would suggest using the new Cry engine 3 for realistic smoke and steam.) The possabilites are endless with a system as powerful as the PS3. ZOE 1 and Second runner looked amazing on the PS2. Just think of what it would look like on 2 or 3 years of solid development on the PS3. Just do it Hideo and stop talking about great games and just make one already.

  • specta1989 posted Apr 15, 2010 10:22 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    specta1989

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:22 am GMT (hide)

    Oh my god. Zone of the Enders 3!! Let's hope it is!

  • specta1989 posted Apr 15, 2010 10:20 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    specta1989

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:20 am GMT (hide)

    Oh my god. Zone of the Enders 3!! Let's hope it is!

  • specta1989 posted Apr 15, 2010 10:19 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    specta1989

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:19 am GMT (hide)

    Oh my god. Zone of the Enders 3!! Let's hope it is!

  • ZephyrKama

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:16 am GMT

    More empty promises (or threats?) from a ego-centric game developer. Somewhere Peter Molyneux is thinking "Taboo?! I like it! I should use that one for Fable 9!"

    Honestly the two types of games could really end his career, something horribly tasteless like Rapeland or even a Manhunt with Metal Gear production values, or a completely horrid overproduced game that forces the company into bankruptcy without gaining any revenue. Either way, it's not going to happen, not by a long shot.

    (Not to ruffle anyone's feathers with this comment but...) I think we can all hope that his idea of "taboo" is a game without dialogue.

  • Smarty12

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:15 am GMT

    Hideo Kojima's vision in games is what I've always respected, and while he himself might not think that his games are art, I most certainly do. And considering that his games have always had incredibly mature content that is difficult to grasp, I can only speculate as to what he might consider "taboo". My guess is something religious or anti-american or something. But he might have higher goals in mind, I don't know. It's certainly interesting and frightening at the same time, the thought of having one of the greatest game creators leave the industry. If Kojima leaves, there really won't be much creative vision left in the industry anyway...

  • Get_Shorty

    Posted Apr 15, 2010 10:15 am GMT

    Intriguing

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