The British retailer HMV can be seen to be taking pre-orders for Metal Gear Solid 4 on the Xbox 360 (see link below), and, what is more, it is saying that the game will be out on September 26 2008.

MGS4: Guns of the Patriots has been subjected to many rumours regarding the consoles which will carry the game, and though a retailer isn’t the most reliable source, it is the closest that has been made to an official announcement.

The title has been mooted as a PS3 exclusive by both Konami and Hideo Kojima, and one would think that Sony would like to keep it that way considering it is one of the biggest exclusive titles it has. In fact, some say Metal Gear is essential to the very success of Sony’s next-gen console.

Konami’s resolve has been wavering however, with its North American and European operations head, Kazumi Kitaue, recently commenting, "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".

Steps? Most believe he was referring to recouping development costs, which a multi-platform release would certainly help it do. It does remain unclear whether the pre-order news on the HMV website is true or not and we’ll just have to wait for an official announcement.

>> Link - Official Site/HMV MGS4 Pre-Order