14 DAY TRIAL // Just recently, the man responsible for the critically acclaimed Metal Gear Solid franchise, Hideo Kojima, posted on the company’s blog that he would like to add another sequel in the Zone of the Enders series. The post he made was generally aimed to test the people’s reaction and see how the news would be greeted. "We'd like to make [a Zone of the Enders] sequel at some point…I already have a game plan and method for sales in my head. However, we don't know if it will be green lighted," he said.
If his goal was to test the waters then he should be happy to learn that they proved to be a mineral hot-spring with magical powers. The possibility of a new Enders was greatly received by gamers, so well that even Kojima was surprised by it. "The reaction [to the post] was greater than I'd expected," Kojima wrote on his company's blog. "The comments topped the 100 mark, and the access count reached levels of the Tokyo Game Show time. It was picked up in a variety of places, including the net and press, and spread throughout the world."
Fans aren't the only ones who were delighted by the possibility of a new game in the series. Apparently, a lot of members from the staff that worked on the first Zone of the Enders were very excited about the idea of a new game and expressed their interest in working on this project. It becomes a vicious circle, as the fans will be excited to hear the original staff could be involved in the project, and the developers will be excited that the fans are looking forward to the game.
The original Zone of the Enders game received a pretty good response from the gaming community when it came out in March 2001 on the PlayStation 2. The Game Boy Advance installment in the series received a similar response one year later, in March 2002, and as such, Kojima Productions decided to make another game. In March 2003, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner was launched and this time it received an even better reception. Unfortunately, publishing faults made the game be less successful as far as sales go. "Due to errors in setting the release time frame, while it was a medium hit, it did not achieve the expected numbers," Hideo Kojima said earlier this month.