E3: Kojima to be hands-off for MGS Rising News

Hideo Kojima is letting "young bloods" at his Kojima Productions studio take charge of new multiformat title Metal Gear Solid: Rising while he concentrates on making Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP, which he considers the next "true" Metal Gear Solid game.

"We're creating Rising with Kojima Productions' up-and-coming young bloods, because the game is for the young bloods as well, a new experience." Not completely new, however - Kojima promised that Rising would be "a stealth espionage action game, of course".

He said he would be also be experimenting with Western development methods on Rising. "I made a keynote speech at GDC and I explained the difference about how studios in the West work, by first creating technology... That's one experiment that we're doing."

For Kojima, however, the real sequel to the Metal Gear Solid series is the PSP's Peace Walker - so much so that he's personally directing the game.

"This is what I mean by a true sequel - it means that I'm writing the script, I'm doing the game direction, I'm working on the title full-time and the main team of Metal Gear Solid 4 is working on this title," the creator said at Konami's E3 press conference.

MGS: Peace Walker, revealed at yesterday's Sony conference, 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.