In all, the Metal Gear series creator has a total of four unannounced projects in the works, going by the 1UP translation of the same piece. Two of those were previously mentioned, with Kojima once again affirming that he is working on "a rather challenging project I'm working on to compete against the overseas industry."

That said, the "challenging" project won't be the one unveiled in the coming months, nor is it likely to be the one he expects to arrive this year. Nothing else is known of the games, though rumors suggest the overseas-aimed title is a first-person shooter.

And while Kojima has previously discussed how first-person games make him sick, that apparently hasn't stopped him from playing Valve's recent zombie shooter.

"I'm addicted to Left 4 Dead right now, but people say to me that that game would never work in Japan...maybe I should quit being Japanese," he laughed.

Kojima also noted his belief that "the US and European [video game] marketplace are far better balanced [than Japan]" due to an abundance of titles for both casual and hardcore gamers.

When asked why the Japanese developers have fallen behind in their offerings--Kojima bemoaned the lack of Japanese games recognized at the Spike Video Game Awards--he responded simply: "Because they're Japanese."

"You can't export entertainment made by Japanese people in the Japanese language, so it's all made with the sort of budgets that guarantee profit within the Japanese marketplace only. Meanwhile, the English-speaking world is a global one," he explained, also expressing his view that Japanese developers are still preoccupied with making games around "rules" while Western studios aren't as rule-oriented.