Big Kojima announcement coming May 18

Hot on the heels of rumors of a new Konami Xbox 360 exclusive and a Metal Gear Solid 4 port comes apparent proof that a major Kojima Productions announcement is imminent. Multiple online sources have posted scans of a two-page advertisement attributed to this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, Japan's top gaming publication.

The scan (pictured) shows a bleak landscape of dead grass and leafless shrubs under a bleak gray sky. On the horizon, a pair of figures can be made out, along with a low-lying building and a road. Besides the Konami and Kojima Productions logos, the ad has only two pieces of text: the date "2009.5.18"--next Monday--and the URL www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/next. As of press time, the URL only brought up a "not found" error page from the official Japanese Konami Web site.

Unfortunately, that's all the information available about the upcoming Konami project. However, if it is one of the two rumored 360 projects, Microsoft will have some wind in its sails coming into its June 1 press conference at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Then again, the last time an Xbox 360 version of MGS4 was rumored, it ended up being Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPhone.

Another possibility is a new installment in the Kojima-produced Zone of the Enders series, which has been dormant since 2003's Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. At his 2009 Game Developers Conference keynote address, studio head Hideo Kojima also teased that the "next MGS" might be a spin-off starring recurring hero Raiden.

[UPDATE] Unfortunately, nothing will be official until next Monday, as a cheery Konami rep would only say, "You'll have to wait until May 18th!"

[UPDATE 2] The teaser site is now live, and shows the same barren landscape and cloudy sky as the scans of the magazine ad. The header for the site merely says "KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS 'NEXT.'"