Hideo Kojima has achieved a lot in his 25 years in the industry. His career has visited with many game franchises but he will always be best known, to the majority of us, as “that guy who makes Metal Gear Solid”. The original MSX game was the first release he worked on and the series has grown in subtlety and complexity as his stature in the industry grows.
Well, now he’s given a fairly frank bit of nostalgia to the guys at the PlayStation Blog. He reminisces about each of the games in the Metal Gear series, giving a little bit of backstory to each one, discussing his frustrations and his grand plans.
The best bit of the whole piece, though, comes right at the end. “Production studios in Japan are nearly extinct, a fact that we have recognized for nearly 10 years,” he says, lulling us into a feeling of mild melancholy before giving us a reason to be cheerful with his very next sentence “although the Fox Engine is not finished we are ready to show what it can do… on August 30th in Japan.”
So, while the production industry in Japan is seemingly on the decline, Kojima Productions are still very much beavering away at their newest engine and will be ready to show it off at the end of next month. That’s even bigger news, when you consider that the Fox engine is what’s powering Project Ogre – assumed to be the very next Metal Gear Solid game.
Mark your calendars, this should be brilliant.
Source: US PS Blog
bmg_123
Exam results on the 23rd, FOX engine on the 30th…at least it’ll give me something to look forward to if the results turn pear-shaped!
cam_manutd
Crammed around that time also will be the MGS4 trophy patch :)
bmg_123
Oh yeah, forgot about that. Tempted to download it, but then you probably have to do everything again to earn them…and if I don’t bother then it’ll just bug me forever!
JBoo
Hmm ‘Fox engine’? i.e the Multi-format engine? Sorry but i just can’t get excited about a Multi-format game engine Kojima :-/
Sympozium
Where did you get that idea? its a exclusive engine for some platform.
Sympozium
Interesting to see what MGS5 and ZOE3 will be like, maybe some new IP would be great for next gen platforms etc etc even just current. I’m also curious if they’ll liensce it out to other game developers like with UE3 and Cry Engine3.
An-dz
Sad theres less Japanese devs about now, i mostly liked Japanese games because of the different culture they are based from. Always something you dont expect and different
Kivi95
Well hopefully this engine is for next gen.
stueeeee
Interesting that he says some directors on mgs4 were directors in name only and he had to do the work, which is why it got delayed….
sionllj
I’m just hoping that whatever Kojima announces is an exclusive Vita title and not some Cross-Platform rubbish; if it’s a Cross-Platform title it will not boost the Vita’s sales at all; everyone could just buy it for £160 less on the PS3.
Rant over.
sionllj
Just read my comment, I was a bit harsh callink Cross-Platform on the Vita “rubbish”, it just rubs me up the wrong way that developers release some things on a platform which has been out for 5 years and a platform that has been out for 5 months; guess which version the majority of consumers will buy.