Metal Gear Solid

Like every year, Kojima Productions will open a website dedicated to their E3 announcements and showings. This year’s site, the Kojima Productions E3 2012 Special Site, will be online on June 1st at 16:00 Japanese time (which is 12:00 am Pacific Time).

The site will feature the videos that will be shown at Konami’s pre-E3 show, and likely additional footage.

Source: Yuji Korekado’s Twitter

The business card already sort of gave it away, but Kojima confirmed on his English Twitter account that he will be attending E3 this year. Last year he was absent from the stage, but now he will be there, probably to promote Metal Gear Rising among other things.

Going to LA for E3 and then NY for signing event at UNIQLO next week.

Going to LA for E3 and then NY for signing event at UNIQLO next week.

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) 31 mei 2012

Shortly after E3, Kojima will visit UNIQLO New York City for a signing event, similar to those already held in Europe earlier this year.

Source: Hideo Kojima’s Twitter

Kojima posted a photo on his Twitter of himself playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, very likely the demo that will be presented at E3. Not much to see here, but fun to share nonetheless.

It’s too small to see anything clearly on the screen, although you can make out some sort of a HUD, resembling life bars, in the upper left corner (click to enlarge). It looks like there is a second, blue bar below the green one, which most likely can be filled to trigger a special move or enhanced strength. The color resembles that of electricity, so maybe it has to be filled by ripping the spines out of enemy robots.

The game will clearly have a big presence at Konami’s conference tomorrow, judging by this teaser poster Konami released.

Today (tomorrow for Europeans) we will finally know more about the game when a new gameplay trailer will be released, followed by a stage demo on June 4th. Check out Konami’s whole schedule here.

Source: Hideo Kojima’s Twitter, Kojima Productions Japan Twitter

Hideo Kojima posted a photo on his Twitter of his E3 business cards for this year. One of them features general information, the other artwork of Raiden standing near two burning wrecks of police cars (these are probably the two sides of the cards). Below it is the slogan ‘Make it Right’, which was also used for the live action teaser videos.

The hand in the picture is a replica of Raiden’s severed cybernetic arm, which is basically an USB stick.

Last year Kojima did not attend E3, but instead announced the FOX Engine, the MGS HD Collection and the ZoE HD Collection via a pre-recorded video.

Source: Hideo Kojima’s Twitter

Someday you feed on a tree frog…

Ken-ichiro Imaizumi, Senior Producer at Kojima Productions, posted some photos of a remarkable piece of merchandise.

What you’re looking at is a Metal Gear 25th Anniversary themed lunch box. That’s right.

The famous FOXHOUND logo is also present, except this fox isn’t carrying a blade, but another piece of cutlery.

It’s unclear wether this merchandise is actually going to be for sale, or if it’s just something that’s exclusive to the staff, but it’s certainly interesting. Now if only those containers could be filled with snakes, tree frogs, and glow cap mushrooms…

Source: Ken-ichiro Imaizumi’s Twitter

Gametrailers.com has announced an exclusive partnership between them and Konami for this year’s E3. Like last year, Konami will stream a pre-recorded presentation live over the internet, in which they will outline the company’s future plans.

In addition, the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance development team will appear on stage on Gametrailers/Spike TV E3 show to give the world’s first live gameplay demo of the title. The game will also be playable on the show floor, which opens at Tuesday, June 5th at 12:00.

Below is an overview of Konami’s E3 schedule.

Thursday, May 31st

• 10:00 PM PST: Spike TV/Gametrailers.com Pre-E3 Show, which will feature parts from Konami’s conference.
• 10:30 PM PST: Konami Pre-E3 Show, which will include a Metal Gear Rising gameplay trailer, and the announcement of a ‘major new game’ set for 2013.

• Spike E3 All Access Live: The team behind Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will appear on stage for a gameplay demo.

Tuesday, June 5th – 7th

• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be playable at the show floor.

Of course, it’s unclear at this point what kind of other surprises Konami may have up their sleeve.

Source: Gametrailers.com, Konami’s Official Twitter, AndriaSang

Geoff Keighley, who will be hosting Spike TV’s E3 show, has been answering some questions submitted by viewers regarding the contents. Two of them asked about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and Keighley confirmed there will be a new trailer for the game this Thursday.

@settled_falcon No, but we do have the new Rising trailer this Thursday. Looks badass!

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) 28 mei 2012

He also mentions that Kojima won’t be on stage showing of his new project (or MGS5), but it’s unclear wether Keighley is talking about Spike’s pre-E3 show or the actual press conferences itself.

@nem0905 Yes we have a new trailer this week it looks great!

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) 28 mei 2012

In any case, it seems like Metal Gear Rising fans have a lot of look forward to.

@ihugvideogames Yes, brand new trailer!

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) 28 mei 2012

Source: Geoff Keighley’s Twitter

Konami is releasing a Metal Gear soundtrack CD to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series. The CD, called Metal Gear 25th Anniversary Metal Gear Music Collection, will contain tracks from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and will feature both original tracks and rearranged ones. A full track list has yet to be announced.

The release date for Japan is July 25th, and the CD is already up for order on Konami Style Japan, for a price of 3,150 yen.

Source: Konami Style Japan

With the video of Metal Gear Rising’s title screen was released on the internet yesterday, Metal Gear fans may look forward to yet some more reveals before E3.

In the latest Kojima Productions Report Sean Eyestone mentioned we can expect some more stuff before the Expo begins. shortly before E3 they will start releasing new things, such as gameplay videos and screenshots.

Lastly, a special report is planned to be made by Kojima Productions and Platinum Games which will be released during E3, or slightly before, but the specifics are still unknown at this point.

After that, people can look forward to E3, where Metal Gear Rising will be playable.

Source: Kojima Productions Report # 161

Konami has announced the European release date for the PlayStation Vita version of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. The game will be released June 28th for Europe and June 29th for the UK.

In addition, Gamespot Asia has a over 10-minute video of the brand manager of the Vita HD Collection showing off the game, Metal Gear Solid 2 to be precise.

Source: Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Gamespot Asia