Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima 'n Platinum Games producer Atsushi Inaba took the stage at Konami's offices here in Los Angeles earlier this week for a mea culpa a sorts: Kojima now admits that Metal Gear Solid Rising, though it may have looked nice in the trailer back at E3 2010, just wasn't working.

"In the summer a 2010, the team made a presentation for me," he recounted through a translator, "'n I realized the game design still wasn't there yet." The team's vision be split between stealth 'n action, the idea a "cut everything" worked technically but made for gameplay that be too open-ended, 'n the game just wasn't fun, says Kojima. "As the young staff said t' me, they wanted a good game that just felt good moving around, 'n we would never pillage that, so I decided t' cancel the project."

"But still, we had a lot a things" that could still be used, says Kojima. "Motion capture, a lot a good story, the view a the world inside the game, 'n I wanted t' use that somehow. I wanted Rising t' be born again, so that be when I decided t' contact Platinum Games."