Sony never signed its exclusive: revealed the reason why Metal Gear Solid 4 did not come to Xbox

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is one of the most representative exclusive games in the PS3 catalog, as it was one of the most anticipated titles from the legendary Hideo Kojima. As you may well know, the fourth installment of the Solid Snake saga was never released on PC or Xbox 360, and until now we thought that it was not released because of something as common as signing an exclusive with Sony, but it turns out that this was never the case, according to one of the people involved in the production of the game.

The information comes from Ryan Payton, who was a production assistant at Kojima Productions until 2008 and was responsible for the podcast that provided gamers with details about the Japanese studio’s projects. Payton participates in the popular book The Ultimate History of Video Games Vol. 2, and in its pages, he explains the truth about the exclusivity of MGS3 on PS3. Or rather, the non-exclusivity, at least as far as commercial agreements are concerned.

“Running beautifully and smoothly on an Xbox 360″

As it sounds, these were the words of the R&D (Research and Development) team in charge of the project. “Metal Gear Solid 4 running beautifully and smoothly on an Xbox 360,″ said some members of the team, who previously thought that the title would not end up running properly on Microsoft’s console, which they considered “older and inferior hardware.”

Payton reveals that there were no technical problems to bring Metal Gear Solid 4 to Xbox 360, but on a physical level, the story was very different, since the format of the Microsoft console (DVD) made it impossible. In fact, Payton’s words support what Jack Treton, ex-CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in 2008, assuring that the game was only possible on PS3 thanks to the Blu-ray used by the machine.

Source | Ryan Payton; vía VGC