{multithumb} Hideo Kojima, head of Kojima productions, announced that Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear: Online will be two separate games and would ship seperately. Fans of the franchise were pretty miffed by this and wanted an explanation.

Kojima Productions Assistant Producer Ryan Payton had this to say about it:

"The idea was two different SKUs coming out, maybe like, Metal Gear Online in time for Christmas and then MGS4 sometime early next year. That was the original plan, but with delays all of a sudden it came out that both games will be mastering around the same time. So we've got this problem. [Consumers] are going to perceive that we're double-dipping, because we ship two $60 games at the same time, on the same day."

Sounds a little steep to me. And in my opinion, certainly not a step in the right direction for console multiplayer gaming. More.

Feel free to chime in on the forum with your thoughts.