New Kojima/Konami teaser reveals 'Mask'

[UPDATE] After torturing Metal Gear Solid fans for weeks with cryptic hints and countdowns, yet another mysterious site surfaces. Is this the long-awaited Snatcher remake? Kojima countdown clock not expiring on Monday, June 1 at 3 p.m.

So far, Konami's publicity department has had a pretty sadistic 2009. After famed designer Hideo Kojima teased "the next MGS" at the end of his 2009 Game Developers Conference keynote address, his publisher partner rolled out a drip-teaser campaign that has bordered on torturous. After teasing a big Kojima Productions announcement as coming May 18, Konami launched a teaser page bearing a countdown timer that ended three days later with...another countdown timer. This was followed five days later with one more countdown timer, accompanied by an image of MGS series character Big Boss, which is set to expire at 3 p.m. on Monday, June 1-the day before the Electronic Entertainment Expo kicks off. It was originally set for the same time on Sunday, May 31.

Invasion of the E3 Snatchers?

Now the teaser site has changed again, revealing yet another teaser site for what might be an all-new IP. Sometime this week, the Kojima Productions logo in the lower right-hand side of the page was obscured by what looks like a ghostly face. The face also links to the URL www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/mask/, which yields a black page with the Konami and Kojima logos in the top two corners. The center of the page is filled with a metallic mask of a feminine face reminiscent of the classic silent film Metropolis, with a second face in the motif on the mask's forehead.

Though the information in the HTML only says "KOJIMA PRODUCTION 'Mask,'" there is no shortage of theories about what the teaser site is for. Besides the obvious prospect of an all-new IP, the most common hypothesis is that the game being teased is a reboot of Snatcher, the Kojima-designed digital-comic adventure released on various platforms in the late '80s and early '90s. The game's main antagonists are a race of "bioroids"--artificial biomechanical beings like the characters in the anime Ghost in the Shell--leading to speculation that the mask on the page may belong to one.

Another reason to suspect that the mask page is for Snatcher is that Kojima himself has said he is working on a remake. In a 2007 interview with Famitsu spotted by gaming blog Joystiq, Grasshopper Manufacture chief Goichi Suda confirmed that his long-germinating collaboration with Kojima, "Project S," was indeed based on both Snatcher and a radio drama inspired by it. "I think I will call it 'Snatchers.' I can't talk about the details of the story at this point," he reportedly told the Japanese gaming magazine.

422 Comments

  • emkplayboy6

    Posted Jul 8, 2009 8:02 am PT

    I'm scared some one hold me! Yow!!!

  • SQUALL20XX

    Posted Jun 9, 2009 11:49 am PT

    What is it?

  • SSBFan12

    Posted Jun 6, 2009 8:07 pm PT

    I think it looks very awesome I can't wait to get it.

  • mookid05

    Posted Jun 4, 2009 1:45 am PT

    It's Castlevania - Lords of Shadow!

  • asian_pride69

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 9:14 pm PT

    Probably a new Snatchers game. I seriously don't know....

  • PSFreak1

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 6:38 am PT

    wat does the mask mean?

  • pakhair

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 6:51 pm PT

    Wasn't any big surprise...........

  • Senge

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 12:44 pm PT

    Heh, sadistic. Gotta be patient, but my curiosity is peaked. And that mask is damned cryptic...

  • gmax Site moderator

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 8:50 am PT

    I guess their campaign is working.

  • jazzmanalpha33

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 6:28 am PT

    @ zaqcdebgt9513
    Yes, I saw that version of the image too. The mask was cracked in a very creepy way, and something could be sort of seen underneath it. Not that way anymore... maybe it takes a few refreshes.

  • zaqcdebgt9513

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 6:12 am PT

    how come the first time I saw that mask image the head was broken (showing some sort of artifact inside) and there were dark cracks coming from the eyes? Anyone else see this?

  • guynamedyeah

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 5:06 am PT

    ]oh well. big boss is cool enough to enjoy on the small screen.

  • bboysleepy32

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 1:06 am PT

    I heard that MGS Rising is going to PS3 and PC from another article

  • Cap3115

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 8:34 pm PT

    this sucks too much waiting

  • MP1289

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 7:00 pm PT

    What about BIG BOSS!!!???

  • badboyx5

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 6:02 pm PT

    so how is this game supposed to be better then MGS4? how are you going to top MGS4...he is not...this is not the next best Metal Gear this is just a random Metal Gear for all the Xbox fans....

  • brunod_f

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 3:04 pm PT

    will mgs rising be for the xbox AND ps3,or exclusively for the xbox?

  • DarkNeoBahamut

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 2:17 pm PT

    I guess we all know what it means now

  • SocialAnXieTy

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 1:05 pm PT

    I don't even care anymore.. there's a MGS coming to X360, they can do what they like now.

  • vengeance00

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 12:58 pm PT

    @ Ocelote_Liquid

    its been confirmed it's raiden for the 360 and PS3 game Metal Gear Solid: Rising.

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