Kojima Mentions Zone of the Enders, The Word "Sequel"
By Kevin Gifford, 04/22/2009
Source: 1UP

In this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, Konami game producer Hideo Kojima commented on the possibility of a new game in the Zone of the Enders robot action series.

That previous paragraph, read by itself, sounds a little too optimistic in retrospect. We regret typing it already.

Here's the deal: Famitsu has a feature this week on the top 50 game series that its readers want to see a sequel for. The ZOE franchise ranked number 15 in this chart -- kind of impressive, since there hasn't been a new ZOE game since 2003. The magazine got comments from the companies behind each games, usually simple "aw, gee, thanks a lot guys"-type responses written by the PR department, but for ZOE, Famitsu got Kojima himself to comment on the series. Here's what he had to say:

"ZOE is a title that has an extremely large fanbase requesting a sequel. That holds especially true for The 2nd Runner, the sequel. That game was praised all over the world, and we still get a lot of intensely devoted adulation for that game. After Metal Gear Solid, it's the Kojima Production title that has the largest and most dedicated fanbase. We're always fantasizing about how we'd make an advanced new version of ZOE: The 2nd Runner with all the cutting-edge tech we have now if we ever had the opportunity. But there is a mountain of things that have to take priority over that, and we just haven't been able to make it a reality yet. I'm positive in my heart, though, that I'll be able to bring a sequel to all the fans someday."

So there you go. It sounds at least a little possible, anyway -- much more so than, for example, a new Breath of Fire RPG, which producer Hironobu Takeshita was a bit more pessimistic about: "It always makes me happy to see such deep-rooted support from the fans, but it also pains me that I can't do anything to live up to their expectations. The people who worked on the last game are all hoping for a chance to make another one someday, but..." (BOF isn't totally dormant, though -- a manga based on the fourth game in the series is currently running in Japan.)