Is Kojima's "Next" MGS5?

These are very exciting times for fans of Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear Solid. Roughly a week ago Konami posted a mysterious website that has turned out to be a teaser site for Kojima Production's next project. The site started out as a simple flash video of stormy clouds over a barren field. But has since turned into a countdown timer with roughly eighty hours still remaining before whatever it is that Kojima & company are hiding is revealed. Hopefully. But that doesn't mean Konami and Kojima haven't made it fun for the fans.

In fact, it was even before this doomsday clock began that fans, and journalists, began picking at the inner workings of the website like a bunch of archaeologists, digging to find any nuggets of informations they can muster. The first comes at face value, and the inclusion of a stormy clouds flash video. It's obvious this scene wasn't picked just for shits & giggles but instead, actually holds a pretty significant piece of the puzzle. See, the Japanese word for "thunder and lightning" is "Raiden," who just so happens to be one of the main protagonists in the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Now no one knows if this new game, labeled "Next," is involved with the Metal Gear universe or a completely new IP under Kojima Productions, but this seems to be a rather strong hint in one specific direction. But it's also what you call circumstantial evidence. A great catch, but doesn't give a definitive answer.

That's where hint number two comes into play. For those digging a bit deeper in the website's source code you'll find tags labeled "MGS, METAL GEAR, KOJIMA, NEXT," which paint a pretty damn clear picture at what we should be expecting. But call us skeptical because we just don't believe it would be that easy to discover what Kojima is making such a big fuss about. Those tags have to be a trick. But if they aren't, hint number three, included with the countdown clock, helps further support the hypothesis of a new Metal Gear game. Every five seconds that tick by a large "5" flashes in the background (as seen in the picture above), written in the font style of previous Metal Gear games, minus MGS4's which used a unique paint brush style.

But could this site really have been made this easy for visitors to crack the code? Don't get me wrong, a new Metal Gear title would be amazing and huge news, feeding right into this year's E3. But you would think the hints would be a bit more subtle unless the idea is to completely trick us into believing it's one thing and surprise us with something completely unexpected. Something Kojima is no stranger to. But it has been speculated for some time now that a new Metal Gear game has been in development, even hinting at Raiden being the lead protagonist now that Solid Snake's tale is completely wrapped up. But then again, so seemed Raiden's as he was last seen settling down with his ex-girlfriend and a son of his own. However, this new game could focus on Raiden struggling to accept a quite, toned down life after all the excitement and conspiracy he had been wrapped up in for years previously.

Hopefully, in eighty-some hours we''ll have the answers we're looking for. And as soon as we do, we'll be sure to share them.