Just a few days ago, Hideo Kojima said that he couldn’t keep his mind on the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for thoughts of his “next title.” Now, it seems as if that next title has taken a backseat to a second unknown project.

Kojima tweeted about his divided attention yesterday, saying: “I’m going to leave my next project to the side while I focus on the “Confidential Project.””

No word on what either of the unnamed projects might turn out to be, but hopefully something will appear in the coming months. If not for our selfish gaming ways, then for Kojima’s sanity; juggling too many projects is apt to drive a man mad.

My editor says there’s higher priority news to report right now, but if you’re a Metal Gear fanboy like me, nothing is more important than finding out just how long I’m going to be staring at riveting cut-scene after cut-scene in the next installment of the franchise.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker may be on PSP, but Hideo Kojima and co still insist this is the next full entry in the series. With the British Board of Film Classification revealing that the total time for all the cut scenes clocks in at 162 minutes, 34 seconds, I’m starting to believe them. Keep in mind these won’t all be fully in-game sequences, a lot of the story is drawn up beautifully by Ashley Wood like in hand-held OPs and the comics.

That may seem long, but not when you realise Metal Gear Solid 4 boasted a mind-numbing 545 minutes (just over 9 hours) of watching Old Snake lumber around. Suddenly doesn’t seem that bad, does it?

Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima is having a difficult time focusing on his current project, the PSP’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and struggles to keep away thoughts of his next project, he’s confessed through Twitter.

“I still have loads of work for PW, but my mind is in ‘The Next Title Mode,’” the renowned game designer wrote. “This is bad. I have to get my mind set on PW. I think about it without noticing, obsessing over it, unconsciously smiling and getting excited. Once again, thinking about ‘The Next Title.’”

“I still do not have the details embedded, but everything is running simultaneously in my head,” he adds. “The title, game design, story, characters, setting, mechs, casting, direction of the graphics, sound, beginning & ending, and key story sequences. It all molds together naturally in my head.”

Whatever the project, it shouldn’t be long until he can give it his undivided attention; Peace Walker releases in the west in two months’ time.

What’s next after Peace Walker? Only Kojima knows for sure, but he gave the rest of the world a hint via Twitter today.

Says the director, “I’m thinking about the casting for my next project. I haven’t even gotten to the planning stage yet, but everything is moving forward in my head. The title, game design story, characters, configuration, settings, the mechs, casting, the way the graphics will look, sound, beginning and ending, the important dramatic sequences. It all fits together naturally in my head.”

You knew it had to happen, and here it is. Sony has revealed a “Big Boss” pack for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which will contain a camouflage-colored PSP-3000 and a number of other goodies.

Alongside the PSP, there will be a UMD copy of Peace Walker; a PSN down-loadable film voucher; a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo; a code that allows early access to in-game unlockable content and a carrying case. The whole package will run you £199.99.

Peace Walker has been in the news quite a bit lately with the approaching release date. It was recently revealed that the title will feature tie-ins to everything from Assassin’s Creed to Monster Hunter, with numerous product placements such as Axe body spray.

As we all probably know by now, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will be one part videogame, and one part interactive billboard. Series creator Hideo Kojima revealed in Japan earlier this week that the game would feature a smorgasbord of real-world product tie-ins, including Doritos, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and AXE body spray. But before you say “cha-ching,” Kojima has something to tell you: This isn’t about shameless commercialism.

“Regarding the collaborations, I have one reason for doing them. It’s because I want to surprise the players,” Kojima said on his Twitter account (via Andriasang), defending the large amount of product placements. “If the surprise and freshness were lost, I would stop the collaborations. It’s different from Hollywood-style merchandizing.”

Of course, since these comments were made on Twitter, there wasn’t a lot of elaboration — so exactly how this is any different from usual Hollywood-style product placement isn’t quite clear. But let’s not forget this isn’t the first time the MGS series has dabbled in product placement — Metal Gear Solid 4, you will recall, featured tie-ins with the iPod, British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph, and Japanese energy drink Regain.

Fanboys beware, the one-console future is coming. At least according to Hideo Kojima. At yesterday’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker press conference in Tokyo, Kojima joined the ranks of other prominent developers, like David Jaffe and Dennis Dyack, with his endorsement of a one console future.

Kojima picked an odd way of of broaching the subject. His comments about a platform-less future came in response to the question, “why did you make Peace Walker for the PSP?”

Cloud-based gaming is the future, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima believes. The “near future”.

Talking at a recent launch event for his latest, the PSP’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the game designer said that “in the near future, we’ll have games that don’t depend on any platform”.

“Gamers should be able to take the experience with them in their living rooms, on the go, when they travel – wherever they are and whenever they want to play,” he added. “It should be the same software and the same experience.”

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan president Hiroshi Kawano, also at the event, responded to Kojima’s words with a reportedly nervous smile.

“It’s a bold prediction,” he told reporters, adding, “We hope he continues to develop for platforms, but we deeply respect his sense of taking on a challenge.”

Both Sony and Microsoft have disagreed with the “near future” prediction in the past; the technology for streaming full capacity games is “not as close as lot of people would have you believe,” Xbox UK head Neil Thompson said earlier in the year, while Sony UK managing director Ray Maguire reckons that consoles as we know them today are “the only systems powerful enough” to deliver “the quality consumers have come to expect and that they demand”.

The people behind OnLive, however, clearly disagree — the streaming game service has been predicted for a summer launch in the US.

Following their Tokyo press conference earlier today, Konami has posted up the first trailer of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker’s Monster Hunter-oriented bonus section. The trailer depicts Snake and his crew using their arsenal of tactics to fight a couple of boss-class monsters, taking time out to roast their rations on a spit after the dust settles. The effect’s a bit surreal, and you won’t have to import the game to experience it — Konami has confirmed that the MH content will be in the US version of Peace Walker due out this June.

The trailer looks quite a lot like Snake has wandered into the set of Jurassic Park, and that’s no coincidence. “The game’s set in Costa Rica, right? That was the location they used to film Jurassic Park, so it’d be the perfect place for Monster Hunter’s creatures,” commented producer Hideo Kojima in an interview with Famitsu magazine. “I figured it’d be the perfect opportunity.”

The MH section, which kicks off in-game after Trenya (one of the item-gathering adventurer Felynes from Monster Hunter Freedom Unite) invites Snake to an island infested with fantastic creatures, has its roots in a Tokyo Game Show 2007 afterparty where Kojima and Capcom producer Ryozo Tsujimoto first met. The MH content is all Kojima’s idea — he officially asked Tsujimoto for permission in September of 2008, after he kicked off his involvement in the Peace Walker project — and it’s being developed wholly on Kojima Productions’ side.