Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima will have more involvement in MGS Rising than he has previously let on.
"I'll be working more deeply on the project then a normal producer," Kojima explained to Japanese magazine Dengeki (translated by GamerCenterOnline). "It's a completely different kind of action than what has appeared in the series so far."
Hideo Kojima will let "young-bloods" within Kojima Productions do the bulk of the work on MGS Rising, which will retain the stealth espionage core but otherwise be a "new experience".
As the first Metal Gear Solid title to appear on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, Rising will need a new engine - a task Kojima Productions is eager to live up to.
"We're redoing the engine from scratch, and it's going to look amazing. It's going to be a big project like Metal Gear Solid 4. The entire team is serious about making it look as good as possible on every platform," said Kojima Productions' podcast host Sean Eyestone.
Meanwhile, Kojima will boss development of "true sequel" to MGS4, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP. But, originally, he very nearly had nothing to do with it.
"At first, I was just going to create the overall guidelines and concepts for the project, and leave it in the hands my excellent staff," said Kojima. "I was going to have a hand in the project as a producer, and make titles other than MGS.
"But, I set the game in the South American [sic] country of Costa Rica and created a story with themes about nuclear deterrence and The Cold War. It looked as if it might be very confusing to young people, because of generational differences. So, in the end I finally said, 'I'll do it.'"
MGS: Peace Walker is a 1970s-set sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 starring Naked Snake, otherwise known as Big Boss. It will be released next year. Little is known about Rising other than that it will star Raiden in his cybernetic ninja suit and, is in development for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.