There's nothing mature about Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, or Manhunt. I'm pretty sure that when Kojima uses the word "mature" he's talking about more than just violence.

I believe that developers should be putting what they want into a video game, it seems like in some games the developers have to tip toe around certain areas to get clearance from the ESRB. I find this ridiculous. Video games are an entertainment medium and should be allowed to use the same rights to put content in their video games as movies and books. It can be frustrating when the effects of accurate story telling is messed up by censorship. An example of this is the first level of Hitman Absolution. An excellent game but in the first level when Diane gets shot in the shower, and the following cutscene has her wrapped up in a towel as she converses with 47, it just didn't make sense on multiple reasons, 1 there was no towel hanging up where she fell through the glass, and two neither she nor 47 seemed concerned about modesty enough to wrap her in a towel, this was an obvious impairment in the game due to censorship, one that didn't make sense. They should have shown the scene accurately like they would have in a movie, or how it would have been written in a book. Controversy is part of story telling. For example a great movie like Law abiding citizen, definitely has some controversial topics in it, especially the beginning, but it is an awesome movie and story. Video games should be allowed to tell these same stories, because video games especially by today's capacity, have the ability to tell incredible stories and allow for more immersion because the player has to guide the character through the story. The metal gear series is phenomenal and always has been, so I encourage Kojima to tell the story he wants to tell in the way he wants to tell it. It is your creative right.

Off soap box now.

as someone who has played alot of metal gear games I can say they always deal with mature themes. However they are usally surrounded by poop your pants and anime porn jokes that makes it hard to take too seriously. Just finished metal gear rising which delved deep into global war economics and an intersting look at right/ left America. I always find it fuuny how seriously people can take these games with character names like deepthroat. silly diologue and delivery heres one of my favorites from MGS2. paraphrasing it but it letterly sounds like a 12 year old wrote it. ????: Raiden, your about to cross this bridge. it has mines on it. use your mine detector to detect them. Raiden: Who is this? ????: Lets just say I am a big fan. You can call me Deepthroat. Raiden: Deepthroat? Like on Shadow Moses?! ????: Uhh... just call me Mr. X then. Raiden: Mr X huh? what happened to Deepthroat? ????: umm... nevermind about that, just cross the bridge

I think that means we could finally understand what the hell is going on in a Metal Gear game lol.

From a man who has made himself king of trolling press releases, I'll take this comment with a grain of salt. Kojima I love ya, but sometimes the BS just wreaks. Too mature to release, Sure(rolls eyes). His stuff has always delved into heady matter (unless what he means by mature being out and out sex on screen).

but just to play devils advocate, the time frame to which ground zeroes and potentially MGS5 aka phantom pain takes place is during the transition of Naked Snake to Big Boss, and though his trails thus far have been formative he's gonna have to go tthrough some pretty rough morally compromising stuff to turn him into the leader of Outer Heaven. So perhapse crossing that line from morally grey to full blown "monster", and forcing the player to take part in that process, is what he's getting at.

Wishfull thinking since I still think he's trolling us.

Taboos in this case being: Things americans don't like to talk about as I don't think mr Kojima was referring to virtual torture-porn (gta, manhunt etc).

Whatever the case, I hope he delivers on his promise and the sales don't suck as he anticipates. Like he says, games still have a long way to go when it comes to mature storytelling, and taboo just gets in the way of that.

/statingtheobvious

Really? Wierd.

It's weird to see that he is scared to take this risk but I understand because if sales are bad they could potentially not get to make another game the way studios have been closing left and right.

I agree with Reignblazer, if he does this the taboos will probably be stuff that Americans turn a blind eye to and don't want to hear about.

Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 is the one that stand out the most for me. I remember playing that game over and over to get the bonuses at the end for different decisions made during game play.

Buying day one just like all the other MGS games Kojima has done.

Metal Gear: Ground Zeroes - A return to wet work.

Here's hoping that it's controversial because it tackles complex themes in a grown up, mature manner.  I don't know what he means by tackling a lot of taboo subjects, but again, if it can be done with an eye toward provoking thought and less toward the sex/violence for the sake of sex/violence, then cool.  If anyone can pull off something like this, it's Kojima.

He can simply do what call of duty did and give you the option to skip those parts or censor the gore like gears. I'll buy your games regardless kojima.

This could be the first Adult Only rated game that I buy...

As long as mature doesn't equal Otacon crying about his escapades with his stepmom. Talk about cringeworthy gaming. When I replayed MSG2 recently I skipped past all of those cinemas. I was so grossed out by that little admission and the accompanying tears that I could've bring myself to play another Metal Gear game for a decade. Mature is fine, too much information is not.

I hear the train a coming....The Hype-Train's rollin round the bend....

Sounds good.

I'm sure this game will be great, and that he should take the risk.

As long as it's not a first person shooter, and still looks and play like MGS, I'm interested.

That can only be a good thing Kojima.