With 1.3 million copies sold on day one alone, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was the big PS3-exclusive game that Sony was relying on this year to help drive sales of its hardware.

By all accounts, it did the job, with reports of MGS bundles selling out worldwide faster than a Wii console. Despite rumours surfacing in 2007 that Konami were indeed planning an Xbox 360 version, the developer and Sony made it quite clear that the last episode in the series would be released only on PS3.

That's all about to change. Japanese videogame designer, Hideo Kojima has just confirmed that the next major release in the Metal Gear Solid franchise will be called Metal Gear Solid Rising, and it will be available on Xbox 360!

It was always going to happen, wasn't it?

A short trailer has been shown, but no more details as yet.

"The Metal Gear Solid series is one of the most highly acclaimed video game franchises of all time," said Anthony Crouts, Vice President of Marketing for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "With Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the Xbox 360 community will finally get a chance to enjoy the action and excitement that this popular franchise is known to offer."

We're even wondering whether Metal Gear Rising will come to PS3 at all. Sony's platform isn't mentioned at all in the Konami press release. We'll have to wait until the Sony press conference tomorrow to find out.