Metal Gear Solid, Zone of the Enders HD remakes coming to PS3, 360

HD remakes have been all the rage with veteran publishers looking to exploit their back catalogs of late, and Konami is no exception. In addition to its Silent Hill HD update, Konami said today as part of its pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference that it is planning similar treatments for a handful of titles that fall in Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders franchises.

Konami will release the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and the Zone of the Enders HD Collection not just for the PlayStation 3. A first for both the Metal Gear and Zone of the Enders franchises, the two HD Collections will also be released for the Xbox 360.

The MGS HD Collection, which is due this November, will include high-definition updates for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and the highly regarded recent PSP release, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Both the original and second Zone of the Enders will be packaged into one box for its HD Collection release, which is currently slated for 2012.

Konami emphasized that both HD remakes are more than just emulator-based updates. The games are being "optimized and rebuilt" for the PS3 and Xbox 360, with a new user interface customized for HD resolutions. Konami has also redrawn the games' 2D art, effects, and fonts; improved audio quality; and included trophies and achievements. Force feedback and right analog stick functionality have also been added.

The HD updates pave the way for Konami's latest game-transferring initiative, which Konami vice president Hideo Kojima has dubbed "Transfarring." Currently compatible with PS3 and PSP titles, Transfarring operates much like Sony's recently announced PSP Remaster program, where consumers can wirelessly transfer their save files between the PS3 and PSP versions of a game.

The first game to take advantage of this initiative will be the HD Collection version of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PS3. However, Kojima hopes to expand this program by bringing the Transfarring functionality to PlayStation 2 games, whereby saves are mobile to and from the PS3 and NGP. The final evolution of this system, according to Kojima, is to create all-new games for the PS3 and NGP that make use of Transfarring.