Longtime Konami employee and producer on several Metal Gear Solid games, Noriaki Okamura, has said that Konami's keyword of 2023 is "long-awaited".

Konami seems to be preparing a big comeback for some of its core franchises in 2023, which is most evident with the recent announcements of the Silent Hill 2 remake and several other projects for the series. That might just be the beginning, however, as a recent comment from a longtime Konami employee seems to be teasing more to come.

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As translated by Gematsu, the latest Famitsu issue features a segment where Japanese gaming developers share their ambitions for 2023, which usually consists of teasing a release window for some of their upcoming games, or confirming that more information will be available soon, such as with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Slitterhead.

Metal Gear Solid 3 Screenshot Of Snake And The Boss

Noriaki Okamura represented Konami for the segment and, not only did he reveal some of the company's ambitions for 2023, but he also gave a keyword for the year. That keyword is "long-awaited", which seems to be playing along with fan expectations of some kind of Metal Gear Solid remaster or remake, alongside the already-announced remake of Silent Hill 2.

Okamura also said this when speaking about the studio's ambitions for the year, "Other than (the educational edition of Momotaro Dentetsu announced last year), 2023 will be a year of many announcements! Stay tuned!”

When pairing the word "long-awaited" with Okamura's promises of "many announcements", it does seem to tease something that we don't already know about, rather than just hyping up some of the projects and games that Konami has recently announced. Combine that with Okamura's relationship with the Metal Gear Solid series, and it certainly seems to be teasing its return in some capacity.

The return of Metal Gear Solid is something that's been rumoured for the past couple of years now, with some of the more recent reports suggesting a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater from the team at Virtuos. Some rumours have also suggested a remake of the first game from Bluepoint Studios, although that seems less likely with the mounting evidence of Virtuos' remake.

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