An image from the website

Yesterday a magazine advertisement revealed that Hideo Kojima, of Metal Gear Solid fame, and his team, Kojima Productions were due to announce, launch, or say something on the 18th of May, this year.

The advertisement, which included a reference to a URL, resulted in a 404, until recently. The website has now gone live, and while it doesn't reveal much at this stage, there are a few things that provide a hint as to what the announcement from Kojima Productions and Konami is likely to be.

First, of course is the cryptic teaser - which is now a flash object, showing passing clouds, tall grass, and dead trees, along with colour tones usually associated with infra-red photography.

What gets interesting, however, is one you look at the HTML source for the webpage, with the meta data keywords including "Hideo Kojima, MGS,METAL GEAR, NEXT, game, konami, kojima game, KJP, Kojima Production".

Yes, two references to Metal Gear. No references to Zone of the Enders, or anything else, other than, of course NEXT. While there is still no announcement at this stage, it does look as though the plot will continue to thicken over the coming days, before the announcement is formally made on the 18th of May.

You can check out the website here, and take a look at the Source yourself if you don't believe this humble news bot. Other things of note on the page include a potential misspelling, or further cryptic clue relating the need of Flash. "Viewing the page requires Flash Plaryer version 8.0 or higher."

Food for thought, or simple spelling error?