Konami is officially looking into the possibility of bringing its hugely successful Metal Gear Solid series to Microsoft's Xbox 360.
For the non-gamers out there, this is a big deal, as Metal Gear Solid has been a definitive series of games, traditionally associated with Sony's PlayStation.
The rumour is back on the agenda, following Konami's Yoshitaka Arai telling Japanese financial news service Morningstar: "The worldwide demand for an Xbox 360 version of MGS4 is quite high, and it is something we are currently looking into."
No surprises here
"After the massive success of GTA IV on Xbox 360, and the recent announcement of previously Playstation exclusives Final Fantasy and Tekken 6 coming to the platform, it'd be no surprise for Konami to follow suit," thinks Editor of Official Xbox 360 magazine, Jon Hicks.
"The huge install base of the console, particularly in the US, means it's missing out on lots of customers by sticking to the PS3. Of course, Konami has ported MGS for other platforms before – the real news would be if it launched the next game in the series on the Xbox as well as the PS3."
Death-knell for exclusives
"Capcom have already sounded the death knell for third-party exclusives, since the rising costs of next-gen development, and the relatively small user bases of both consoles, mean they make no financial sense," says Editor of PSM3 magazine, Daniel Dawkins.
Dawkins is pragmatic, claiming that the best case scenario for any third-party game is a timed exclusive "most likely plumped by format holder 'incentives'), extending anywhere from 3 to 12 months at the extreme, as recently witnessed with Bioshock."
"Will MGS4 go to Xbox 360? If pressed, I'd say yes, almost certainly ," says the PlayStation mag Editor, "though Konami may release it as a 'vanilla' port with zero enhancements at the same time as they confirm the extended edition for PS3, a bit like MGS3 Subsistence."
The best case scenario (for 360 gamers, at least) would be that Sony release such an extended version on both formats at the same time.
Zero significance
"It's of almost zero significance," says Dawkins. "Anyone who's likely to get upset will have finished MGS4 months ago.
"The only exclusives from here on in will be first party, and the good news for PS3 owners who find this sort of thing disturbing is that Sony's recent output exceeds Microsoft's in terms of diversity and quality, with Little Big Planet a great recent example."
TechRadar has spoken to a Konami rep in the UK, who tells us that the company has no plans right now to release MGS4 on any format other than PlayStation 3.
Your comments (11) Click to add a new comment
jtthegame316
January 13th
11. drewber69 explain to me why this need to stay on playstation? metal gear has nothing to do with sony therefore it should appear on 360 just as metal gear 2 appeared on orignal xbox and the original was remade on gamecube
grishrak stop giving sony credit for metal gear. One company made metal gear what it is and that is konami and if it was not on playstation it would of got big on whatever console it appeared on. See fanboys are a big reason why games from third parties need to go multiformat cause fanboys espcally sony fanboys give credit to the company the third party make it exclusive on. see if konami put metal gear on 360 it will wake sony fanboys up to the reality that sony had nothing to do with metal gear. namco woke them up a by shifting tekken and now sony fanboys know namco are reponsiable for tekken and not sony.
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patch86
October 20th 2008
10. I bought a 360 last year (mainly because it was cheaper) and I'm sick to death of all these selfish fanboys hating the possibilty of cross platform games! I've played all the previous metal gears and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them so as you can guess I'd welcome a 360 port of patriots with open arms! If the developers of this game feel they profit from this then why the hell shouldn't they? If I were a ps3 owner I'd encourage konami to go ahead as i'd want everyone to experience the game! Anyone who thinks a game should stay exclusive to a single console merely because they're a stupid fanboy should shut up a get a life!... And maybe another console!
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socrates
October 20th 2008
9. There's not really much one can do I guess? I prefer Playstation over Xbox, but that doesn't mean I don't like Xbox.
If I were a game developer, I'd seriously be looking at all options to optimise profits. It just makes sense yeah? I mean I read reports that even in Japan, usually the most anti Xbox country, sales for Xbox exceeded Playstation 3. Why wouldn't a developer want to tap into that?!
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drewber69
October 20th 2008
8. noooooooooooooo MGS is the one series that needs to stay on the Playstation platform and stay true to its name its a playstation game it would be like putting halo on PS3 like that would be very ****y
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jlouis141
October 16th 2008
7. The truth is that microsoft has been trying to play catch-up by stealing ideas for several years now. With there 4 successful first party franchises (Halo, Gears, Forza, Dead rising)- I didn't mention mass effect because it may be coming to Ps3, you would think that there energy would be better directed towards there new system or establishing something other than a massive online fanboy chat room called xbox live. I guess not.
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grishrak
October 16th 2008
6. Well Mass Effect 2 is going to be on the 360 and PS3 so thats fair. But just because theres a huge demand for it don't take it multiplatform without Sony there wouldn't have been a MGS2, 3, or 4.
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