Rumoured Metal Gear Solid 4 demo unlikely to appear

By Stevie Smith Jan 21, 2008, 10:51 GMT

Rumoured MGS4 demo is unlikely to appear and is merely the product of hopeful fanboys. Credit: Konami.

The Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots rumour mill continues to push out masses of speculative information grain, and this week resultant chatter indicates that a playable demo of the hugely anticipated PlayStation 3 exclusive will be making an appearance this coming February.

This latest rumour has emerged following an article summation printed in UK-based PSW magazine, which outlines that the PlayStation Store will play host to a demo of Metal Gear Solid 4 next month.

"Want more MGS4? Well you’ll get it very soon," teases PSW after playing and praising new South American game levels. "The stage played here will be out on the PSN Store in the next month."

However, although Sony fanboy feedback has been predictably feverish as hopes of finally spending some game time with the long-developed Konami epic begins to spread, it is worth considering that Konami and Kojima Productions have already said a playable demo will NOT arrive prior to the game’s retail release.

Specifically, Konami's Michael Shelling made it clear at October's 'E For All' expo that the demo on show there would be the only chance non-press gamers would get to play Metal Gear Solid 4 prior to its retail release.

And that standpoint was recently solidified by Kojima Productions' assistant producer Ryan Payton who said at the close of 2007 that there were no plans to release a playable demo in connection with Guns of the Patriots.

Furthermore, while any pre-release playable demo would most likely arrive in the form of the much talked about (and existing) Tokyo Game Show demonstration, the PSW article also notes that it will be the newly unveiled South American levels players will be able to "glimpse" via the Store.

Note the word "glimpse," which, if you ask us, is more likely to mean that a video demo will be released in February – a video demo that’s distinctly non-playable. Any such 'new' demo would be highly unlikely based on the amount of work involved in getting it ready beside a title already hit with repeated delays.

Of course, we could be wrong - and certainly thrilled if that's the case.

Update: While current Internet stirrings suggest that PSW has 'confirmed' the upcoming demo will indeed be playable, until Konami and Kojima offer such confirmation, this should still be treated as speculation.