Metal Gear Solid creator and Kojima Productions head-honcho, Hideo Kojima, has been dominating industry headlines for weeks - following the recent reveal that the Raiden-centric title, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, had been retitled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
It's no surprise to see Kojima hitting the spotlight, given that fan reaction has been pretty polarized, but as the famous game director calms the masses, he's also been unveiling loads of fresh details about Revengeance - including confirming that the game will be playable at E3 2012.
As reported by Famitsu, in a conversation with Tatsuya Minami (CEO of Platinum Games) and producer Atsushi Inaba, Kojima confirmed a pair of intriguing details:
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be playable at E3 2012.
- Bayonetta Main Programmer, Kenji Saito, is the mysterious Revengeance director.
While some fans will no doubt say that the E3 announcement is a no-brainer, following years worth of delays (and even potential cancellation) any news indicating Revengeance is moving closer to reality is welcome. That said, E3 will no doubt be a major test for the game - which, as mentioned, alienated a lot of passionate Metal Gear supporters by throwing out stealth gameplay in favor of the fast and frantic hack and slash combat of Bayonetta.
After it became clear that Kojima was hardly involved with the day to day on Revengeance, an especially vocal group began to claim that Bayonetta director, Hideki Kamiya, was also directing the Kojima spin-off. During that time, Saito "speculation" enjoyed a lot attention too - as more and more Metal Gear faithfuls asserted that the Bayonetta programmer, Kenji Saito, was actually leading the charge on Revengeance. That said, after directly mentioning Saito in the interview as the game's director, it sounds as though gamers can finally put the debate to rest, not that it makes much difference either way, since Saito and Kamiya don't have especially different styles - they worked together on Bayonetta only two years ago.
Ultimately, whoever is in charge, the numerous production delays continue to hold a fog over development - as it's unclear whether Platinum Games is merely cobbling together a workable title from Kojima's discarded scraps or delivering a Triple-A experience that will succeed at living-up to the Metal Gear legacy as well as the expectations of button mashing action-lovers.
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Source: Famitsu [via Andriasang]