It’s not the best time to be a fan of Japanese games. Highly anticipated releases like Final Fantasy Versus XIII, The Last Guardian and Metal Gear Solid: Rising seem to be stuck in development hell judging by how long they’re taking to crawl their way to retail.

Those of us hoping for a timely release of Rising will be cringing at the news that leaked Gamestop documents in the Official Xbox Magazine’s possession point to a November 2nd 2012 release date.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising was first announced for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 at E3 2009, and very little information and gameplay footage has been revealed considering that the game’s been in development for over two years.

Kojima Productions has a golden opportunity to settle our nerves at next month’s gaming showcase by putting the fruits of their labour into attendee’s hands, and perhaps outlining what aspect of the development process is taking so long.

If a quality game like Uncharted 2 can be developed in roughly two years, is it unfair to expect a world-class studio like Kojima Productions to follow suit?

My general feeling is that it’s difficult to stay excited for a game when it’s announced prematurely and the developers/publishers are then faced with the very difficult task of maintaining hype over a 3-year-plus period.

Unfortunately Japanese developers have been the main culprits in this regard during the current generation, and this could be attributed to a number of factors including economic climate and culture.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. There are sure to be some new Metal Gear Solid announcements at E3, so hopefully there’ll be some awesome “Tactical Espionage” games coming our way in the not-too-distant future.

Stay tuned to El33tonline for news and views of all of the latest Metal Gear Solid announcements.

H33rsay is El33tonline’s (regular) round-up of game industry rumours and speculation where we have looks at unconfirmed and unannounced pieces of news emerging from anonymous tipsters, information leaks and generally dubious sources. It may not all be true, but it’s still fun to talk about!

Source: Digital Spy