While it’s been said that the story of Solid Snake has ended, nobody said that Metal Gear as a franchise was over, despite what you may have heard. In fact, there’s plenty of room for more about Big Boss.

So goes the latest from Ryan Payton, assistant producer on Metal Gear Solid 4. We talked about this briefly in a recent podcast and we agreed that there’s no way Konami would let the highly lucrative Metal Gear name just disappear. Even while fans awaited Metal Gear Solid 4, no less than three games came out for PSP with the Metal Gear name on them: Ac!d 1 and 2 plus Portable Ops. And wasn’t there a Portable Ops 2?

Speaking in an interview with 1UP a week before the game’s release, MGS4 assistant producer Ryan Payton said there is “still a lot of room for filling in the gaps as far as Big Boss is concerned.” When asked about the possibility of a Metal Gear Solid 5, Payton responded, “There are some misunderstandings that this is the final Metal Gear game. But it’s really the final chapter of the Solid Snake story. That’s all.”

No, there’s plenty of room for more Metal Gear. With games like these that are based around the titular walky, shooty robots, you’ve got a franchise that never has to die. More good info from Payton can be found in 1up’s full interview.

Source: 1up. Image source: I can has cheezburger?