Rumor: Xbox 360 Gets MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots!

Reliable sources for X3F seem to have some vital information regarding the last installment in the Metal Gear Solid series, MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots. Apparently, the Official Xbox Magazine says that Hideo Kojima's stealth-based game will be also introduced on Microsoft's Xbox 360, just a few months after the PS3 release (which is sometime during the next year).

I picked[ADAMRK=1] up on this piece of news via Joistiq.com, which posts the following: "A reliable tipster has whispered in X3F's ear that the Rumor Mole section in the latest issue of OXM claims a "bankable source" confirmed that Metal Gear Solid 4 would be coming to the Xbox 360 "a few months" after the PS3 version." Given that it's the Official Xbox Magazine we're talking about here, it's quite credible.

Set in 2014, seven years after the Manhattan Incident (the events of the Plant chapter from Metal Gear Solid 2), Metal Gear Solid 4 portrays a world where the restriction of military intervention on foreign soil has eased, leading to demands on mercenaries to fight proxy battles for business purposes, fueling the need for private military companies (PMCs), and leading to economic dependency on the conflicts they create.

However, the five largest PMCs are owned by a single mother company named Outer Heaven (the name of Big Boss's mercenary company and fortified nation in the original Metal Gear), operated by Liquid Ocelot, which amasses a military equivalent in manpower to the United States', and prepares to launch an armed insurrection. With the world once again in crisis, Solid Snake is deployed to the Middle East.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is Directed by Hideo Kojima and Shuyo Murata. The game is under heavy development over at Kojima Productions, currently for the PlayStation 3 scheduled for a 2008 release. As I said earlier, MGS 4 will be the last Metal Gear Solid game in the series, also being the last game developed by Hideo Kojima. You'd think the man wanted his last developed game on as many platforms as possible...