MGS4 still coming to Xbox 360?

The new year has arrived, but it would appear that the rumours surrounding Metal Gear Solid 4’s exclusivity just won’t die down.

A report on XboxFamily states that a Konami distribution representative said that the Xbox 360 version of game is already in production and has been since early 2007.

The game will still lead on the PlayStation 3, but the report claims that the game will follow on the Xbox 360 around 12-to-14 months after the PS3 version is released. Given that the PS3 version is expected to hit sometime during 2008, we can safely assume that if the rumour is true, MGS4 won’t be released on the Xbox 360 until 2009.

XboxFamily went on to contact Microsoft for verification, but the expected—albeit lengthy—“no comment” came back.

There’s no doubting that this was one of the biggest rumours of 2007 and it’s looking like it could be one of the biggest rumours of 2008 as well. That, of course, is mainly because of the countless denials from Konami, Microsoft and Sony.

Last year, Sony claimed that it doesn’t pay for exclusives any more, but we’re not sure whether that is the case any more, as one of Kotaku’s sources suggests that Konami returned money paid to it by Sony to secure the game’s exclusivity for the PS3. On the other hand, another source says that money never exchanged hands and that the exclusivity deal was merely a show of support for the relationship between the two companies.

Of course, the information is anything but concrete, but it’s fair to say that this rumour doesn’t want to die. Do you think this could ever happen? Share your thoughts with us in the forums.