Rising’s woes came to a head at E3 where Kojima realized that while the story and character elements were SOLID, the game design was not there, and the overall package was not a cohesive whole. Two years of development hell had passed and it was clear for Kojima that the team would be in that perpetual circle of finding that perfect balance that would not be possible. Kojima cited the Rising in an identity crisis trying to merge stealth with action and it ultimately brought the game development down. This, of course, led to development troubles when the younger staff could not find a unified vision for the game design, instead focusing on their own personal assignments. The overall direction was guided by one focus: cut everything and everything. Kojima, at the time, pursued the role as producer and mainly a hands-off role in order to focus his attention on the FOX Engine and Peace Walker. Metal Gear Solid: Rising was undertaken by the younger staff at Kojima Productions after the development of Metal Gear Solid 4.

Atsushi Inaba clarified speculation on its development troubles and the newfound collaboration.

However, concerns about the game’s new direction and reboot were an issue to be addressed at the QA session to which Mr. Rumors about another developer taking over the project was revealed via a leak on Saturday when the internet found out in advance that Platinum Games is developing the troubled Rising project. On a somber Monday, we were ushered into an undisclosed location in Los Angeles to a QA session to discuss the newly rebooted Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which saw its re-debut at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards.

Revengeance timelime