The Hideo Kojima Keynote at GDC was a hilarious speech that covered the entire scope of the Metal Gear franchise and everything that designing the series entailed. With graphics that featured a conceptual Snake leaping, climbing and occasionally falling from stumbling blocks, it was truly entertaining. However, there was definitely something that stood out towards the end of the presentation. As Kojima was mentioning the distinction between Japanese designer driven games and Western technology driven games, he mentioned that he felt that a combination of the two methods should be used. He stated that this was the direction that he felt Metal Gear should go, and as the animation played out, a frame stopped with large letters stating: the next MGS. The startling thing was standing behind these words – a conceptual figure of Raiden stood behind this phrase with his back turned towards the screen. It was tiny, but it was distinctly the cyber ninja.

Could this mean that Raiden will definitively be the focus or the hero for the next Metal Gear Solid game? Plenty of speculation has raged online since Metal Gear Solid 4, primarily because so much was made about the end of Snake. While there obviously were no details given in the keynote, simply having Raiden present is a large tipoff to the direction of the new game. It also raises another question: could this potentially be the game that Kojima mentioned yesterday in his interview with us? Time will tell, and we'll bring whatever news is announced at E3 about Kojima's next project.