Retail Radar: UK retailer lists MGS4 for 360

The rumours have been flying furiously for some time now that Konami's latest Metal Gear Solid game, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, will be coming to Microsoft's Xbox 360.

The game, stated as a PlayStation 3-exclusive by both Konami and Hideo Kojima himself, is considered one of the biggest exclusives that the PlayStation 3 has coming up. After the success of Metal Gear Solid and its sequels on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, many consider the game to be vital to the PS3's success.

However, recently Konami has appeared to be mulling over the decision to make the game PS3-exclusive. Konami's North American and European operations head, Kazumi Kitaue, recently said in an interview, "Since Metal Gear Solid was born for the PlayStation, we would like to keep it a PlayStation game. But we might have to take some steps." The executive continued to state that the company was mulling a multiplatform release in order to make its development money back.

In perhaps the likeliest indication yet, or perhaps just an unfortunate admin mistake, UK retailer HMV is now taking preorders for the title on the 360 on its Web site.

The listing on HMV's Web site states that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is available now for preorder, at £39.99 (£10 off the recommended retail price of £49.99), and that the title will be released for the 360 on September 26, 2008, in the UK, five months after the PS3 version is currently due.

[UPDATE] An HMV representative told GameSpot that, "In his enthusiasm, one of our online games team indicated that hmv.co.uk would start taking preorders for MGS4 on Xbox 360, when, in fact, he simply meant to ask customers if they wished to receive an alert in the event of this title one day coming out on this platform."

He continued, "We're sorry to have caused such a stir--the oversight has now been corrected. He is now sitting on the naughty step."

Please note, while retailer listings frequently jump the gun on publishers' product announcements, they should not be taken as final confirmation of a game's existence; nor should the absence of a listing be considered as proof that a game isn't coming to a given platform.