In an interview with Kotaku, Ryan Payton (the luckiest Metal Gear fan on the planet) says he has officially left Kojima Productions. With no new games on the horizon and some bad family news, Ryan decided it was time to pack up and get back to the states & be closer to the family. Also he laments not being able to work with his "Kojima family" on METAL GEAR SOLID 5. (so thats confirmation its happeneing??@@!!) We here at DigitalSomething wish Ryan and his family all the best. Hopefully everything works out and we see something new and awesome come from Ryan. If you are unfamiliar with Ryan you can check out the podcasts he did for Kojima Productions during the development time of Metal Gear Solid 4, KP Report.

As a Metal Gear fan this worries me a little bit. Ryan was a big influence on the Metal Gear Online part of MGS4. With out him around I would not be surprised to see it killed by next summer just as that last version only lasted about a year. Also Ryan gave us the Metal Gear Digital Graphic Novel, which is sorely missing its second part. Hopefully that will see the light of day sometime too, but with out Ryan one must wonder.