The churns of the rumor mill have been suggesting that Konami has been pressing Kojima to port the upcoming PS3-exclusive [i]Metal Gear Solid 4[/i] to the Xbox 360 for a while now, and now the owners of Microsoft's console can rejoice, because the biggest of the handful of remaining PS3-only games is now going multi-console.  But not everything can be celebrated, as in a press conference last night, Hideo Kojima, the master behind the [i]Metal Gear[/i] and [i]Zone of Enders[/i] series announced that he would be leaving Konami.  "I've been pondering it for about a year and a half now," he stated, referencing when Konami of Japan merged their development studios, and Kojima seperated and formed his own studio.  "Itagaki-san and I have discussed Tecmo's handling of Team Ninja," he said through a translator, "and I think that it would be a better fit for my studio."  He elaborated, "it isn't just that they want the game to appear on the Xbox 360, but it is a few things that have happened the past couple years, and this just kind of confirmed it."

[i]Metal Gear Solid 4[/i] and the just-starting [i]Zone of Enders 3[/i] will remain under control of Konami because of the Japanese laws that place it under the publisher's control if it was developed under their yen.  This may also apply to the mentioned-in-passing [i]Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops 2[/i].  However, Tecmo will probably be able to buy the other two titles, but [i]MGS4[/i] is probably too far into development for Tecmo to be willing to foot the bill.

Check in with Mygamer for further developments.

April Fools.