Snake is getting all prettied up for the big release!

Yes we’ve gone a bit top heavy on the Metal Gear Solid 4 news, but it’s just coming in thick and fast. And we’ll take it while we can when we suspect Kojima hibernation is imminent. Today we bring you the exciting news that Kojima doesn’t want to disappoint his fans any longer – there will be no further delay for MGS4, as confirmed in the Kojima Report Podcast.

On this weeks Kojima Report Session, Ryan Payton (the game’s Assistant Producer) lets us in on some titibits on MGS4′s release date. There is no set date for release, since conversations are still continuing between Kojima and marketing, but they are definitely concentrating on Q2 of this year. Yes, you heard it here first; the title is not going to slip.

The whole team and Kojima himself are committed to Q2 2008. Ryan even tells us that Kojima was embarrassed by the slip to 2008 and that he doesn’t want to further delay the game.

I can hear you all murmuring “Yeah right!”, but hey, there’s actually more good evidence to support this. Ryan tells us that the game is “on the eve of the bug checking phase”, where the game is very nearly feature complete. MGS4 can even be played from start to finish.

Even though parts, such as the opening movie, are still missing, the remaining development time is filled with bug testing, tuning and last minute features. This is the last push for MGS4. Hurrah!

Although a specific date is still speculation, MGS4 will be released simultaneously worldwide (within the same week) in Q2 2008. You can put money on it. $60 would be a good bet.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Credit goes to Gamespot forums for the hilarious title image.