Metal Gear Solid 4 Producer Explains There’s No Sony Deal For Its Exclusivity, Xbox 360 Was Not Part Of The Vision

Since the dawn of Metal Gear Solid predating back more than two decades ago, the franchise alongside its parallel Silent Hill sibling IP both resonate most with players on PlayStation. With each installment continuing to drive sales for the platform, it was best assumed that PlayStation and its later hardware was always in mind of the publisher Konami.

Take for example the Silent Hills precursor P.T. It was released back in 2015 to give players on PlayStation 4 a taste of what is to come for the now-canceled project following the fallout of Hideo Kojima from Konami. With Death Stranding being the result of this (and being unique to PlayStation 4) it continues this trend. However, this was not simply put for the PlayStation 3 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

While the game did release for the PlayStation 3 back in 2008, the reasoning for its uniqueness to the platform was not an arranged deal. According to Ryan Payton in ‘The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 2: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and the Billion-Dollar Battle to Shape Modern Gaming’, he explains that Konami was not intending to make it an exclusive because Xbox 360 was not in the vision entirely.

ResetEra user Nightengale transcribed the statement from the book revealing the information. “The prevailing belief around the industry was that Sony must have secured an exclusive deal for the game. It wasn’t true. Had Kojima chosen to port the game to Xbox 360, his bosses would surely have approved the decision, but he wasn’t ready to make the jump.” But believe it or not, it is likely due to the limited space available of Xbox 360 discs at the time.

User Rhaast pointed out a report from Eurogamer in 2013 pointing out the Xbox 360 discs could not fit Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots unlike the Blu-Ray discs PlayStation 3 used. The only way for Konami to likely ship the game would be to deliver a seven-disc bundle to make it feasible. The closest we saw this commercially is with L.A. Noire delivering the game on three separate discs.

Are you surprised by the response for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots not releasing on Xbox 360?

Source: ResetEra