The Rumors Persist: Metal Gear Solid 4 for Xbox 360?

Rumors are a funny thing; they have a tendency to stick around, long past the time when there is any reason to indicate that they’re true. Back in January, the story first broke that Metal Gear Solid 4, an exclusive title for the PlayStation 3, would be coming to its rival, the Xbox 360. After a while, the rumors seemed to go away, but recently, they’ve come back with a vengeance. And this time, could they be true? Is MSG4 coming to the 360?

The new rumors stem from a single comment by a Konami representative. The rep, Yoshitaka Arai, is quoted as saying “The worldwide demand for an Xbox 360 version of MGS4 is quite high, and it is something we are currently looking into.” Now, this is not a confirmation of MSG4 coming to the 360, but rather that it is a possibility, which is more confirmation than we’ve ever had.

Even the people over at PlayStation seem to believe it’s a strong possibility. Daniel Dawkins, the editor of PSM3 magazine, responded to questions by saying, “Will MGS4 go to Xbox 360? If pressed, I’d say yes, almost certainly. Though Konami may release it as a ‘vanilla’ port with zero enhancements at the same time as they confirm the extended edition for PS3.” That should give 360 fans even more hope.

These days, it makes sense for developers to make multi-platform games rather than exclusives; by opening up their target audience, the titles are bound to bring in more money. As it is, gamers are seeing less and less exclusive titles, so why wouldn’t Konami want to bring Metal Gear Solid 4 to the 360?

One reason would be the cost and time to redo MSG4. The game was designed for the PS3, and for Konami to make it for the 360, it would cost a ton of money and anywhere from three to twelve months. Which is a bit of a pain. And the development time could be spent creating MSG5… for all consoles? It’s kind of a toss up as to which way it’ll go.

So for those of you like me, who don’t quite have the money to buy a PS3, this could be great news. However, if you’re one of those people who bought the PS3 just to play MSG4, I could see why you’d hope that it remains an exclusive. But either way, we only have a couple of rumors, but I’m betting they stick around for quite a while.