Metal Gear Survive: The Future of a Franchise?

     Metal Gear Survive is the newest game coming out for the Metal Gear Solid franchise. It has already have some differences form the past games. For one it is the first game since the departure of its creator Hideo Kojima. Second it seems that Konami is taking some liberties from the other games as this game will feature zombies. Konami Europe president Tashiro Tomotada has stated that Survive will be a "fresh take" on the series.
     So far the game has been met with some backlash. For one the most recent trailer on YouTube has been met with a lot of dislikes. Adding to that Kojima in a recent interview at TGS 2016 kinda did a backhand remark on the game, saying the following:
"That’s nothing to do with me!" “The Metal Gear games are about political fiction and espionage,” “Where do zombies fit in with that?”
     The idea of adding zombies in the series isn't new. Kojima himself had an idea of putting zombies in as "nanotech" corpses in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Even though zombies never made it into the series, weird has never been new to the series. Psycho Mantis, time paradoxes, The Sorrow, and playing as an old Snake to name a few. This however does raise an interesting question dealing with the direction the series might go post-Kojima. Will Survive be an inkling of the future of franchise?
     Going by Tomotada's words, I see this as Konami's way to put their own spin on the franchise and as a way to differentiate themselves from the Kojima-influenced Metal Gear games of the past. They're testing the waters. Whether the franchise is in trouble or not is indeed uncertain. Some things will work and some things will not. Time will tell. What is important is that Konami sticks to what made the series great and not delve too far from that. Everyone is scared that concerned that with zombies, the series and the people developing the new games will lose sight of the past games and it will be a big mess, kinda like THAT other zombie video game series we won't talk about. If they stay focused on what worked for the past games and how they can improve that then maybe we won't have anything to worry about.

What are your thoughts on the future of the Metal Gear Solid franchise? Is it in good hands?

Metal Gear Solid: Will The Franchise Be Solid Without Hideo Kojima?

     This month we have gotten an official confirmation that game developer and producer Hideo Kojima and Konami are splitting up. If you've been somewhere in space for the past year or have been an employee of Konami the writing on the wall has been huge. We got the message that Kojima was planning on moving away from Konami for a while. It was apparent in interviews, the cancellation of Silent Hills, Metal Gear Solid V, both The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeros being Kojima's last titles, Kojima shutting down his studio, and let's not forget an New York Times journalist pretty much spilling the details.
      So apparently Kojima and Konami have already moved on to better things. Kojima is starting a new independent studio with Guillermo Del Toro and Sony and Konami is already staring the ball rolling by looking for a new director for the next Metal Gear Solid game. The problem is can Konami find someone to do the series justice. Can they even find someone who will make the games just as good as Kojima?
      If you are new to the Metal Gear Solid series, you need to know one thing. It is Kojima's child. It is his artist masterpiece. With Kojima's departure you have people worried or whether the series can go on or at least be as good without Kojima being a part of the project.

      Ironically they have done something like this in the past. Konami had made a American only sequel to one of the Metal Gear games in 1990, Snake's Revenge. Kojima had absolutely no involvement in making the game. A matter of fact he didn't even know about it until a developer working on the game told him about it. The game didn't fair well as the company made it by completely taking out everything that worked with the first game and just mad a generic shooter, pretty much like Contra, except not good. Luckily this made Kojima to make a true sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake for the MSX2 computer.

     I would like to believe that Konami had learned their lesson since then, considering the fact that they made sure Kojima has been involved in every Metal Gear title since then, and this would be the exact time to show it. Will they pull it off? It is a possibility they could or it's a possibility that they won't. One thing is sure is that whatever director they go with it will be tricky and they will have their work cut out for them. Again, it is hard to imagine the series without  Kojima being involved. It's almost like Nintendo without Shigeru Miyamoto or Wes Craven without the Nightmare series. For one thing, we will know that the series will be different. Hopefully it will not be that different. Hopefully a good different.