Researching and Digging into the Microsoft Twitter Rumors...

by zanzibarbreeze

On the heels of the teaser sites and advertisements published by Konami and Kojima Productions comes another rumor out of a Twitter account: apparently, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be coming to the XBOX360 in the means of a port named "Metal Gear Solid 4 + Oxide" (or some derivative of that).

The 'tip' comes from a Twitter account by the name of Game Fork, an account on which the tipper created specifically for name dropping upcoming games and peripherals presumably to be revealed at Microsoft's press conference at E3 in a couple of days. "MS E3 big drops," Game Fork writes, "Xbox Fluid - New Motion camera! Splinter Cell Conviction Halo ODST Alan Wake APB Metal Gear Solid 4 + Oxide (Show Finale)". He or she then went on to clarify with further posts - "Yes. Metal gear solid + Oxide is one title. :)", and "For the questions about MGS+O being show finale: Konami will announce a 360 exclusive (NOBODY outside of Kon has been told what this is)...".

There are a few things about the account itself that are as mysterious as the (let's face it, crappy) name "Metal Gear Solid 4 + Oxide". For one, all of Game Fork's Twitter posts are logged from the web. That means that this person is logging on to Twitter to post updates - something that he or she probably wouldn't be doing if they were hanging around a building owned by Microsoft. Then there are the strange times of posting - unruly hours in the morning. What are the chances of this being a substantial rumor?

"The person also appears to be British, since he claims to have "no links to Sony or SCEE"--Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, based in London--and follows Queen's English spelling rules." That's from GameSpot.com and Tor Thorsen, who posted a fairly in-depth article about the updates coming out of Game Fork. Kotaku spoke to Microsoft group product manager Aaron Greenberg, who said:

"I can confirm that this post is completely uninformed and does not even come close to matching our news for E3. You can't believe everything you read, but it is fun to see people trying to guess what will be shown at the show and we are excited to sharing our real news with everyone on June 1st."

That's a pretty definitive statement. "For the record," Kotaku's Stephen Totilo writes, "Microsoft took the unusual step prior to this E3 of not participating int he traditional spring pre-E3 Game Critics' tour. So while outlets including this one are sitting on embargoed news from the likes of EA and Activision — and on info offered by major publishers who ran their own satellite pre-E3 exhibitions — Microsoft has shown nothing to the press. If Game Fork is a real leak, he or she is not leaking from a press tour in the U.S. Maybe he's a viral marketer..."

There's one thing for certain: we will not see a port of Metal Gear Solid 4 for the XBOX360 made by Konami - ever. The game is too highly tweaked for the PlayStation 3 for it to be simply dumped onto Microsoft's hardware. The Twitter account is probably a fake - but it does leave you wondering what Konami will bring to the 360 when the beginning of June comes around. I would be very surprised if the next Metal Gear title, or Hideo Kojima title for that matter, is a Sony exclusive.

Cross-posted from Metal Gear Scholar blog