When Hideo Kojima wrote on his blog, promising that he'll work on the next installment to Zone of the Enders, interests piqued by the news were not limited to the ZOE fans. Apparently, the news is so big that even his own staff, the folks at Kojima Productions, are showing much interest in working on ZOE.

After Hideo Kojima finishes working on his last pair of Metal Gear Solid games (or so it seems for now), the A-list producer will have more time on his hands to work on other games. For the fans of his other brainchild, Zone of the Enders, (I'm looking at you, papajag, TheRockness) good news: Kojima posted on his blog that he would be working on the next ZOE...someday.

Speaking to the European PlayStation Blog in an interview, Hideo Kojima gave some more gameplay info about his next Solid masterpiece, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. After this one and Metal Gear Solid: Rising (PS3, Xbox 360, and PC), however, the real Big Boss behind Metal Gear Solid is set to leave the franchise in the hands of his younger colleagues at Kojima Productions, leaving the creative genius wide open for new games.

Who would've thought. Kojima's teams in competition. That's right. The two teams working separately on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid: Rising (PS3, Xbox 360, and PC) "are not really good friends," this according to the big man himself, Hideo Kojima. Find out why in the full article.

Konami blew quite a few minds at E3 when they announced that Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima would be involved in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, their upcoming reboot of the Castlevania franchise. It has since come to light that the game is actually being made by Mercury Steam with Konami Europe producing. It wasn't even really a Castlevania game in the beginning. So just what does Kojima's involvement entail, then? The man himself answered that question in a recent Famitsu interview.

After the mostly dismal showing of last year's Castlevania Judgment, Konami is once again trying to take the Castlevania franchise in a new, albeit slightly more familiar, direction with the open-world action title, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

And the build up for E3 2009 continues. The good news is that the pre-E3 dry spell hasn't quite started yet, but we're in the final stretch here, folks. Everybody and their mother -- or grandmother, in the case of Old Grandma Hardcore -- is getting ready for June's big event. That still a week away, though. Now as for this week, we once again saw rumors, denials, confirmations and teases about what we'll be seeing not just at the upcoming annual game expo but for the rest of the year as well. Read on for all the big news that flashed across the QJ front pages the past seven days.

So far, we've seen a teaser image, two countdowns and some letters and numbers that all tease Hideo Kojima's next project. Now here's another one to add to the mix.

Whos' Number 1 for Famitsu for 2008? All was revealed at the Famitsu Awards, and the Monster Hunters still proved to be the favorite as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G takes the top spot as Game of the Year.

Usually, the trend has been to experience a noticeable dip in the amount of news coming out the week before the GDC. However, this year's pre-event week proved to be a rather different one from those I've experienced in the past. Unexpectedly, but fortunately, there were a great deal of updates. It was a busy one, alright, and thank God you stuck with us throughout the week, making it such a blast!