During a half-hour backroom chat with Kotaku and Kotaku Japan at the Tokyo Game Show on Friday, sitting beside Metal Gear character designer Yoji Shinakawa and a publicist cos-playing his next game's female characters, one of gaming's most celebrated creators amiably discussed his latest works, a curious detail of his past and his hopes for the future. Much of the conversation, covering all three eras, involved Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear series, of course, a series the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will continue but not complete.

"I think the Metal Gear story will not end until I pass away," Kojima said. "But, even then, young people of the next generation will continue the story as they would a classic. It's basically the story of a master and an apprentice."

Kojima's latest Metal Gear is Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a portable adventure that supports multiple players and tells the pivotal story of the master, Big Boss, who would become the nemesis for the hero of the next generation, Solid Snake.

"In Metal Gear Solid 3, Naked Snake became Big Boss, but, in reality, he's not really the Big Boss yet," Kojima explained. "Eventually he's going to become the enemy of Solid Snake. I want to tell the story of how Big Boss began and what changed him."

Peace Walker is the game that will tell that story, a PSP experiment that finally puts Kojima in direct charge of one of these portable adventures of his Metal Gear heroes. It's also an early test of a theory he has. "I basically think that the future of gaming is less about platforms and more about cloud-computing, with a super-computer and people connecting to that," he said. "We wanted to experiment with the idea early on with Peace Walker and have a portable game."

(Yes, Kojima believes that cloud computing, the technique of users engaging with digital content that is stored and processed far away, is on the rise, "more of a longterm thing before cloud computing is the mainstream of games." But, no, said Kojima, who has seen his words turned into hyperbolic headlines, "That's not the main part of this article. That's just my idea on the future of gaming.")

We moved to discuss the importance of cardboard boxes as they relate to Peace Walker and his own past.

In Peace Walker, up to four players can participate in missions co-operatively. Among the co-op maneuvers available, two players can hide together under the series' signature cardboard box. "I think the cardboard box is what represents Metal Gear in a way, of stealth," he said. "This time I wanted to emphasize the co-op part through the cardboard box by having two people in it." (Read more about how the game's co-op works in Kotaku's Peace Walker preview.)

The cardboard box has been an unlikely device for Kojima to utilize to think about things differently. Long before Solid Snake or Big Boss ever hid under a box in a Metal Gear game or trailer, their creator did. He was young. "There was a story in Japanese literature called the Box Man, and, kind of an as an homage to that story, I used to hide under cardboard boxes when I was little. That Box Man book is basically about hiding under a box and looking at the world through that box and having a different point of view. I wanted to experience that, though I'm not sure if it worked."

Few who have followed Kojima's work would say he has failed to see the world a different way. He is a fan of a different stripe of video games, saying the only games that interest him at TGS are the non-Japanese ones: Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed II. (Well, he admitted, he liked Konami dating game Love Plus, too.) He is the designer of a different kind of game, maintaining a standard of dramatic storytelling and quirky gameplay unique to the Metal Gear series.

And, with Peace Walker, he's hopeful to promote a different kind of multiplayer emotion.

Multiplayer games was originally cut-throat, the developer explained. "In multiplayer gaming, especially in online gaming, first it was about competition with each other. Then the next level was co-op. But it wasn't really about friendship. It was about benefiting from your teammates, a give and take kind of thing. But, this, time I want to take it to the next level and to give a feeling of sharing.

"I want players to feel the joy of helping each other out. For example, there's the game's life bar. When players are close to each other, it becomes one. Even if one player is dying or weaker, they can help each other. We want to express the strength of friendship through that."

Huddling under the box might bring the players closer too. But the box can't fit all four players supported by Peace Walker. Blame PSP memory restrictions, Kojima quipped. "I wanted to have it fit four," he said before naming a non-programming justification for fitting only two. "In reality, there is not a cardboard box that fits four people. Maybe if it's a next-gen console I can do four or five or 10 people. And then it probably doesn't need to be a cardboard box."

A Kojima mention of the next-gen platforms might stir memories of his other Metal Gear announcement of this year, the development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 of Metal Gear Solid: Rising. While Kojima was happy to speak about Peace Walker, he chose to reveal little here at TGS about Rising. He referred to it simply as a "next-gen Metal Gear," a game he said is designed to apply his team's Metal Gear know-how to a revamped engine and new development system. He said the game is "far from completion."

One of Kotaku Japan's bloggers asked Kojima to react to some Japanese gamers' concerns that the developer's announcement of Rising at an Xbox 360 press conference was a betrayal of the PlayStation 3. "I don't make games for platforms," Kojima said. "I make games for players, and it's because of the players that I'm able to be here."

Kojima has a full plate of Metal Gear projects ahead of him to ensure he's busy. But I noted to him that some of our readers have clamored for Kojima to work on something other than Metal Gear. He gets the message.

"Not only the Kotaku readers but I myself am interested in doing something besides Metal Gear," he said. "But, right now, I am working on Peace Walker. Eventually, after the project is done, I might think about it."

He joked: "If you write that 'Kojima-san doesn't have to make Metal Gear any more' every day on Kotaku, and write to the CEO of Konami and tell him that, then it might be easier for me to make non-Metal Gear games."

That could free him from the Metal Gear box, perhaps. But from within it, for now, he will continue to see the world differently. With Peace Walker, he's got room for more.

Kojima tells Gamepro that the two teams have a sort of rivalry going on as each title is developed. Why? It's a simple snobs versus slobs situation, with one team—the Peace Walker fellas—getting the short end of the stick when it comes to money and hardware specs.

Obviously the PSP can't make the technical prowess of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but that apparently hasn't stopped some corporate bad blood between the two Metal Gear Solid teams. Kojima goes far enough to say the teams are "not good friends." Why do you say that Kojima?

"The reason why I say they are not good friends is because the PSP is working day and night to make it even better than MGS4, but of course they can't do it because of a lot of restrictions," he tells Gamepro. "On the other hand, the Rising team is using loads of money and loads of capacity and hardware specs."

So, while the Rising guys and gals are pissing away yen like its their job, lighting Cuban cigars with 10,000 yen notes while the Peace Walker team searches for crusts of bread in the Kojima Productions kitchenette to survive. Or at least that's how we're envisioning it. They're probably just not holding the door for the Rising guys on the way into the office sometimes. Or bowing at an angle one degree higher.

My version of this rivalry is better.

Kojima: Peace Walker and Rising teams "are not good friends." [Gamepro]

Having long made a name for itself on Sony consoles, the next Metal Gear Solid title - Rising - will also be appearing on the Xbox 360, a move which Microsoft says levels the proverbial playing field. Microsoft VP Shane Kim:

I still think exclusive content is really important. First of all, in games, we've said for a long time that a key part of our strategy with Xbox 360 was a level third-party playing field. Now we've effectively done that with Metal Gear Solid coming to the Xbox 360.

The economics are such that third parties also have to support multiple platforms, and you can't ignore Xbox 360. It's the second leading platform.

Interesting that he so openly states that the 360 is in second place. But not as interesting as the fact that, some days, it feels like the entire world has forgotten about the Xbox version of Metal Gear Solid 2.

Microsoft's Future Begins Now: Shane Kim Speaks [Gamasutra]

According to the Kojima Productions podcast, Konami is developing a brand new engine for Rising to, as KP podcast host Sean Eyestone points out, "realize this multi-platform goal".

"We're redoing the engine from scratch, and it's going to look amazing," says Eyestone. "It's going to be a big project like Metal Gear Solid 4. The entire team is serious about making it look as good as possible on every platform."

The title Rising is a pun of sorts. The Japanese pronunciation "Raijin" is a word play on a mythic Japanese storm god. The character name "Raiden" means "thunder and lightning" in Japanese. Geddit?

The title also has significance in English: "It's raising the Metal Gear franchise up to the next step."

Kojima Productions does in depth [Metal Gear Scholar]

We're hoping to be given more details on Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, but hoping a little harder to heard more about Castlevania: Lord of Shadows. But Konami has more than just Metal Gear in its E3 lineup, so brace for lots of talking about Saw and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, plus stuff like Ultimate Party Challenge.

Read on for solid liveblogging action, courtesy of Mr. Mike Fahey, who is sitting in the designated "red zone."

Despite being announced by Hideo Kojima at Monday's Microsoft press conference, Peter Dille, Sony's head of marketing for PlayStation in the U.S., told Kotaku today that the expected hit will also be available for his customers promptly. "Look forward to playing it on a PS3," he said when we inquired if it was a Microsoft exclusive.

Asked if he expected that PS3 owners would be playing Metal Gear Solid Rising on the same day the game comes out on the Xbox 360, Dille said, "Yes, that's correct."

Dille used the question to draw what he sees as a distinction between Sony and its competitors. "I think the difference between our approach in our press conference and our competitors' is that our focus is on exclusive content," Dille said. "When a third party comes on our stage, it's because they have something for our audience that is exclusive. And so whether it's the Assassin's Creed demo where Assassin's Creed [2] might be cross platform, what we're doing with the [weapon-unlocking] functionality between the PS3 and the PSP is a point of difference."

Metal Gear has not abandoned you, Sony fans.

My personal favorite of the day's clips is the LEGO Harry Potter teaser — but I'm a sucker for all things LEGO-related. A close second is the Ayane gameplay footage, followed by the Old Republic trailer. If you have no idea what I'm talking about because you missed all of this glorious, game-related cinema, go through the list below and start watching.

I'll just be at the store, buying more popcorn for tomorrow's night's E3 clip binge.

Crysis 2 Trailer Is Light On The Crysis 2
LEGO Harry Potter And The Teaser Trailer Of Doom
In the Interest of Time, A Modern Warfare 2 Gameplay Clip
Old Republic Gets New Trailer
Watch Ayane Kick Some Ass
APB E3 Trailer Full Of Cops, Criminals
Halo: Reach Trailer Knows What You Know
Alan Wake Creeps Me Out
All You Need Is The Beatles: Rock Band Debut Trailer
Metal Gear Solid: Rising Teaser Trailer
Molyneux's Milo Brings a Virtual Child to the Xbox 360
See Microsoft's Project Natal In Action

Since Microsoft didn't make mention of Metal Gear Solid: Rising being exclusive to its console, we had a pretty good indication. Even better is the Gamespress information for the newest, Raiden-starring Metal Gear Solid, which is listed for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The release date is still TBA.

We'll know more about the multiplatform status of Metal Gear Solid: Rising tomorrow, when Kojima's almost assured to sneak up on Jack Tretton, tap him on the shoulder and, hopefully, debut the game's first trailer—then ask us if we liked it.

According to Konami, the game will star Raiden, who first debuted in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and who appeared most recently in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

"The Metal Gear Solid series is one of the most highly acclaimed video game franchises of all time," said Anthony Crouts, Vice President of Marketing for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "With Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the Xbox 360 community will finally get a chance to enjoy the action and excitement that this popular franchise is known to offer."

Thoughts, feelings about this Kojima countdown drip fed hype — let them be known in our comment section. That's what it's there for, you know.

Kojima Productions Special Site [Konami]