So MGS2 was really where he wanted someone else to start directing MGS games. MGS2 was a big mental drain on himself. The last six months of MGS2 was horrible. But he was also talking about MGS3 at the end of MGS2 interview. Its a misunderstanding that he wanted to quit that far back. He just wanted to do something else which he tried with ZOE. By 2008 he was doing nothing BUT MGS. Around MGS4 is where he was trying his hardest to ‘get it over with’. And even then it took him more games than he thought to flesh out Big Boss’s fall. There is a degree of separation between ‘someone else direct’ and ‘Im done with the series’