Rumor Mill: Metal Gear Solid 5 Semi-Confirmed

Did Ryan Payton, former assistant producer of Kojima Productions and heavily involved in the development process for blockbuster Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, just confirm that there's a Metal Gear Solid 5 in development? Judge for yourself. Here's what the guy said while talking to gaming blog Kotaku for a bigger interview:

"It'll be hard not being involved in MGS5, but I've got the utmost confidence that Hideo Kojima, Ken Imaizumi, and our amazing team will put together another blockbuster game. I'll be cheering from the sidelines".

Payton has recently spent summer in the United States, with his family and some distressing news regarding his mother's health has prompted him to decide on taking a leave of absence from the videogames industry. He will focus on spending more time with his mother and then he will consider options regarding development as they present themselves to him. He might even consider re-joining Kojima's team.

Payton also has an extensive background in games journalism, having worked for outlets such as Electronic Gaming Monthly and XBN. He has been working on various Metal Gear Solid related intellectual properties since 2005.

His statement seems to imply that there is already another title in the franchise which Kojima Productions and Konami are producing. This is directly contradicting the statements made by Kojima himself earlier in the year when he said that Metal Gear Solid 4 was set to be the end of the saga of Solid Snake. After all, you can see the old guy die in the game so there's not much room for a direct sequel. Kojima has not, however, ruled out making games related to Metal Gear Solid, recently stating that there's a chance that Metal Gear Acid, the card game released for the PSP, might make its way to the PlayStation Network.