The Konami countdown related to Metal Gear has offered gamers some new images and one letter to speculate about. An inspection of the images introduced shows a close up of Big Boss and a letter like R or P flashing on the screen.

Big Boss is one of the most important characters in the initial Metal Gear game, as he commands Solid Snake on his missions. He later turns out to be an antagonist of Snake only for the player to learn afterwards that Snake is actually a clone of Big Boss, who is seen as the best fighter of the XX century.

He even serves as the main character for two prequel games, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. The character also makes an appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Big Boss' introduction might mean that the next Metal Gear is a sort of prequel, telling a story that involves him and Raiden, probably offering details on their lives outside their interactions with Solid Snake.

It's interesting to note that Famitsu, the quintessential Japanese videogaming magazine, ran an interview with Hideo Kojima and a lot of gamers thought that he would be talking at length about his upcoming project. Those who have been expecting translations of the interview to offer big reveals will be disappointed to know that most of it is blanked out, with only some of the images being interesting, as they depict Raiden, another character that could feature heavily in the next Metal Gear videogames.

The latest countdown clock on the teaser site will end its run on June 1, presumably so that Konami and Kojima can dispel all the rumors and announce, officially, what they have planned for the near future. Maybe we could get a trailer or even an E3 demo of the upcoming project.