E3: Kojima Says The Franchise Ends With MGS 4

Debuting the latest Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer at Sony's E3 conference, series director Hideo Kojima said that this latest chapter in the franchise would be its last, and promised all Metal Gear mysteries would be solved. Kojima also promised that this would be his final involvement with the franchise -- a claim, though, he has made a number of times before -- and said that the story would draw a close to the saga of Snake. He also promised that he was putting "all my effort and skills and experience from past 20 years" into the title, which is set for an early 2008 simultaneous worldwide release. After the real-time demonstration, presented in English for the first time rather than its native Japanese, Kojima apologized for having only a video demonstration ready and said that on the 17th he would be leading a live demo of the title. There, he said, he could teach players what it's like to participate in a stealth game directly on the battlefield. "It'll look a little crazy," he added, "and I think you'll like it."