MGS: Metal Gear Speculation

This is the updated Metal Gear Next teaser site. Now, it’s sunny, and we’ve added the letters “0” or “O,” “6” or “G,” and “B” or “8.” Not really that’ much more clear, but the timer runs out today at around 6PM EST. Finally, the wait is almost over.

For those of you who don’t know:

A teaser site for Kojima Productions (MGS4) next title has been counting down for several days now. When the first countdown ended it revealed another countdown. When that ended, another countdown.

Of course there was a little bit more than that. The site’s image, a field on a stormy looking day has grown progressively stormier. Accompanying flashes of lightning, one could occasionally glimpse a hidden character, letter or number, in classic MGS font. We’ve seen "5" or "S" "e" "E" "3" "R" "P" so far. Then a few days ago, an image of whom appeared to be Big Boss from MGS3.

As if this kind of teasing wasn’t ridiculously infuriating enough, a Kojima interview with Famitsu was recently released, heavily edited, as not to spoil the announcement that is to come at E3.

Some new scans of the mostly censored Kojima interview with Famitsu have surfaced so I’ve been able to get a look at them for myself. Here’s what I’ve been able to gather:

1. It’s not MGS5 – When asked about the "5" that appears on the teaser site, Kojima says it’s not a "5," but an "S." Later in the interview, he says (the project) is different from MGS5 and then goes ahead and just tells the interviewer what it is – XXX (edited out)

As the reports online have formatted, each X is an omitted character, so three XXX’s is too short for "MGS5." Another piece of evidence that supports this is that the titles, proper nouns, in the interview still appear in quotation marks, even though the titles themselves are omitted. Because XXX is not in quotations, it’s not a title.

2. What’s XXX? – As stated above, XXX is not a title. Instead, it stands for some other three character word. DLC perhaps?

3. Metal Gear Next is a Continuation of the Metal Gear Solid Saga – Don’t know why this isn’t out there yet, but a very clear part of the interview, not censored, says that

Kojima, "I can’t tell you the title yet, but this is part of the main Metal Gear Solid Saga."

4. The "e" is a Lowercase "e" – There was some speculation that the "e" in the teaser was an @ symbol, in the typeface of the other characters, so that the message was "5@E3." However, in the interview, Kojima makes it clear that the "e" is just an "e." I’m not sure that the fact that it’s lowercase means anything. It’s more likely that they just needed some way on the site to make it clear that there are two E’s in the teaser clues.

Of course, a lowercase "e" could support the DLC theory. (e-Distribution)

5. That’s not Big Boss – It looks like Big Boss, but Kojima says it’s not really (not in those words, but that’s the effect) He elaborates, but it’s omitted.

There is a lot more here, but I think that covers the stuff I haven’t seen written anywhere else.

My guess? DLC continuing the Metal Gear Solid Saga.

My wild guess? RPG in the Metal Gear Solid world.