Last week a Japanese press ad from Kojima Productions revealed little more than a stormy-looking field with what may or may not have been the outlines of two shadowy figures and the promise that more would be revealed online on May 18th. Today they’ve made good on that promise and have launched the site (http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/next/), although we’re no nearer to learning what it’s all about...

So what’s there? Erm, not a lot, really. The skies have lightened slightly and the clouds now sweep across the bleak landscape as lightning flashes overhead and thunder rumbles distantly. All very atmospheric, we’re sure.

More intriguing, though, is the live countdown clock that’s appeared. At the time of writing we’re 87 hours, 59 minutes and 28 seconds away from some kind of event or further announcement. On top of that, every few seconds the outline of what appears to be a figure ‘5’ appears on screen. It’s stylised to the extent that it could just as easily be a capital ‘S’, but with the previous Metal Gear outing being the fourth in the series, well, call us hopeless fanboys if you like but we’re already putting two and two together. The word for thunder in Japanese is ‘Raiden’ too, which, of course, is the name of one of the key characters from the Metal Gear franchise.

In short, if this isn’t some kind of Metal Gear announcement we’ll be eating our hats. Yours too, most likely. Be sure to check back in three and a bit days from now to find out more.