Metal Gear Solid developer and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear Solid publisher Konami split up in 2015, and there hasn’t been a mainline entry in the legendary MGS series since (although there was the not-so-great Metal Gear Survive in 2018).

While there’s no reason to expect Kojima and Konami will collaborate again anytime soon, it appears the latter is planning a comeback to MGS. Longtime MGS producer Noriaki Okamura remarked in a recent edition of Famitsu that “2023 will be a year with numerous announcements,” as Gematsu noted.

Multiple Japanese developers and producers teased what 2023 could contain in this special end-of-the-year issue of Famitsu. Okamura indicated that 2023 will be a year of announcements for Konami Digital Entertainment at this point. In particular, he stated that “apart from [the educational edition of Momotaro Dentetsu released last year], 2023 would be a year of numerous announcements,” and that his watchword for 2023 is “long-awaited,” as reported by Gematsu.

This might just be his way of expressing that Konami will make certain announcements, some of which will be eagerly anticipated by fans. However, given that Okamura is a longstanding MGS producer, there’s reason to suppose that he’s hinting about a return to the MGS franchise. Maybe we’ll get a remake of one of the games, or maybe we’ll get a new mainline entry. Time will only tell.