Fans have been demanding a reason as to why Konami and Kojima Productions would release the next installment of the Metal Gear Solid saga on to the PSP, instead of releasing  it on the Playstation 3. During the latest episode of the Kojima Productions podcast, Sean Eyestone explained the teams decision to develop Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP.

“We want people to go out and socialize with other people. You know physically take your PSP with you, go to your friend’s house and hang out together,” said Eyestone. ”Of course, we could have done co-op, maybe, on PS3 or something like that. But, whenever you do online co-op, that actually, in a way, kind of discourages people from playing together.”

He later stated that, “So not just going home to your respective houses playing online but actually physically coming together, enjoying yourself and kind of recapturing that old-school feel of playing together, enjoying a game together.”

When you put it that way, I’m actualy very happy they did this. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will release exclusively on the PSP sometime in 2010.

[Konami explains why Peace Walker is only for PSP via Examiner]

“What game has 360 owners always wanted to play on their 360?” At the Microsoft E3 Press Conference, Hideo Kojima announced “Metal Gear Solid: Rising” for the Xbox 360 – but we’re not sure that it’s an exclusive yet because they only said “in developement”.

However, instead of featuring Solid Snake, the game will star Raiden.

“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.”

It seems that things are a bit clearer now. After teasing us with letters we can’t even make sensible words out of, the Kojima “NEXT” project teaser site update has finally revealed some more information about his upcoming game.

Anyway, the lighting and rain return, but this time with the letters “R” and “P” flash on the screen – along with the other letters from before. However, the teaser site reveals another hint. A picture of what looks like Big Boss – I’m not going to beat around the bush here, it is.

If you didn’t know, Big Boss was Solid Snake’s commanding officer in the original Metal Gear, however, it’s later revealed that Snake is his son-slash-clone.