PS3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 was once ‘running beautifully’ on Xbox 360

The game’s assistant producer says the number of discs was an issue

At one point during its development, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was “running beautifully and smoothly” on Xbox 360.

That’s according to the game’s assistant producer Ryan Payton, who shares the revelation in Steven L Kent’s book The Ultimate History of Video Games Vol 2 (via Time Extension).

In an interview for the book, Payton claims that there was no exclusivity deal to ensure the game was only released on PS3, and that the decision instead came down to the choice of disc format used in Microsoft‘s console.

Payton says that at one point Konami set up a team dedicated to seeing if the game could be ported to the Xbox 360.

“Despite how downtrodden my colleagues were with developing on PS3, most of them were still hardcore Sony fans and were not in favour of spending resources on such a test,” Payton explains in the book.

“They believed Metal Gear Solid 4 would look and run terribly on Microsoft’s older and inferior hardware.

“One fateful day, the Konami R&D team hosted a meeting where we got to see the fruits of their labour – Metal Gear Solid 4 running beautifully and smoothly on an Xbox 360.”

According to Payton, although the port was possible on a technical level, it wasn’t practical on a physical level.

Because PS3 games came on BD-ROM discs which could hold up to 54GB of storage, and Xbox 360 games came on DVD-ROM discs which could only hold up to 8.3GB, bringing Metal Gear Solid 4 to Xbox 360 would have required putting the game on numerous discs, something Konami wasn’t willing to do.

This was backed up at the time by Sony’s Jack Tretton, who once stated: “Metal Gear Solid [4] is not only exclusive on PS3, it’s only possible on PS3 thanks in part to Blu-ray.”

Konami announced last month that a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3, titled Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, will release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

It will also be releasing the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection series, Volume 1 of which will contain Metal Gear Solid 1-3 as well as the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2.

Metal Gear Solid 4 has never been re-released on any other format, meaning it remains a PS3 exclusive to this day. It remains to be seen if Volume 2 of the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Series will contain a port of the game.