Metal Gear Solid: definitely heading to Xbox 360

It's been some months now since the rumours started circulating that Hideo Kojima was considering bringing his Metal Gear Solid juggernaut to the Xbox 360. Given the decreasing number of third-party franchises that are format-exclusive, this would have been a body blow to Sony, but not a desperate surprise.

And yet all concerned flew in with their denials, citing specifically the capacity problems with the Xbox 360's DVD drive against the more capacious Blu-rays that the PS3, of course, supports.

Turns out, though, that some of that was just smoke. There's going to be no Metal Gear Solid 4 on Xbox 360, but it's now been confirmed that the next game in the Metal Gear Solid series, currently entitled Metal Gear Solid Rising, will be arriving on the 360 as well as the PS3 we expect (although the latter hasn't, as yet, been confirmed).

It picks up the adventures of Raiden from the second game, rather than resurrected Solid Snake, and while little is know of the title, it's also reported that "Kojima described it as a brand new type of game that differs significantly from its predecessors."

No news on when it will actually arrived yet, but this is surely the breaking of one of the last major third party exclusives in the market.

MCV