Metal Gear Solid 5: There's "Pressure", says Hideo Kojima

Series creator and gaming icon Hideo Kojima says there's "definitely pressure" to pursue a fifth instalment.

By Kikizo Staff

In a new interview published on Kikizo today, creator of the Metal Gear series Hideo Kojima has boosted speculation about Metal Gear Solid 5, saying there's "definitely pressure" to keep the hugely popular action series going.

Asked whether he feels pressured by the success of the series to make another game, he said: "There is definitely pressure. We don't belong wholly to Konami, so that pressure might be lighter, but since Kojima Productions is a part of Konami and Konami does the business side of things, yeah, I feel pressure there, that there's a need for it to be a successful, ongoing series."

The will-he-won't-he debacle surrounding Kojima's continuing involvement on the series is nothing new. As we put it to him in a previous interview last year, he first told us in 2001 that Metal Gear Solid 2 would be the last MGS title he would work on. He said the same about MGS3, and has once again said it about MGS4.

But even at the time, when pushed last year, he admitted: "...maybe yes, I may well end up spending more time on the Metal Gear series".

Kojima said he has no intentions of focusing on smaller projects, stressing that he wants to work on big stuff, which will also fuel speculation that MGS5 will be a Hideo Kojima game.

"Anything I want to really get involved in will be a bigger project," he explained. "Personally, though, I would like to do smaller projects, but when I think of the time I have left living on this earth, I would rather spend that on bigger things!"

Elsewhere in the three-page interview, Kojima discusses Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPhone, increasing development costs and a definite interest in working with Western developers - a number of which he has recently visited to see what Kojima Productions can learn from other studios.

"We've always observed other studios within Konami, but I decided that we shouldn't just rely on that; we should take it one step further and look at studios outside of Konami, and perhaps identify areas where Kojima Productions lags behind its competitors."

Check out the full interview here.