As Bod said, Sony owes Konami for exclusivity, as Konami would make more money releasing this game for the 360 as well.  How does Konami becoming Sony's advertising dog payment for Konami?  If anything, Sony probably had to pay Konami for that product placements.

 again, you're reading out of context. I think Konami granted exclusivity for much more reasons besides these product placements (which i explained up top and many times before). The product placements only solidifies PS3 exclusivity, if you still don't see where I'm going with this then I'd say that you're blinded by your own confusion.

How exactly does a few product placements solidify exclusivity?  Do you think MS would turn the game down because it has a few product placements?  Unlikely -- don't forget, MS is the underdog here.  Sony is the bigger company, and they're still the reigning champ.  Even if that was a sticking point, removing a few product placements, replacing them with another model, cutting them out, whatever, all of those things would be a very tiny amount of work conpared to porting the game in general.

I'm not saying that the game is gonna be ported, just that a few models in the game and a joke or two can be removed much more easily than the entirety of the port work.  So this is no road block.  It could simply be Konami being pissed at MS for not offering enough money to get the game. 

 Because people want to believe that Sony doesn't buy exclusives and has never bought exclusivse.  They "earn" them. (through buying them in "kickback" fashion, nothing so rude as just getting pure money.)

I don't think anyone understands what I'm trying to say in this thread.... Look:

Product placements (cell processor, Dualshock 3, Sony cellphones, PSP, BluRay) = Sponsor = Sony = $$$ = 3d party exclusive.

^ + more $$$ + dev funding + marketing support + hardware bundling around the world = lock down exclusive.

Unless Konami themselves agreed to an exclusivity contract and never to bring MGS 4 to the Xbox 360, there's nothing there that you said that would keep them from releasing it for the Xbox 360 in the future, if they so decided to. And I think that if MGS4 does poorly -- less than a million day one as Konami said was absolutely necessary or less than 3 million by the end of summer -- then the chance of it getting an Xbox 360 port is reasonably high.

The stuff you mentioned is all a pittance compared to sales of a top-teir game. 

Especially when looking at how much better games that were previously Playstation exclusives often do on the 360. GTA 4 is a good example of this for American numbers, and America is very important to Metal Gear Solid games. It's also the most popular region for Final Fantasy games.

Its a good thing that they start paying devs for getting 3rd party support.

Microsoft has done it several times, and as seen by recent events, STAR OCEAN 4 is exclusive to the XBOX 360, even though its such a stupid move considering JRPGs dont sell on the console. I honestly dont know what square was thinking when they made that move.

@bbsin - I think you are saying that Sony bought exclusivity indirectly by paying Konami for product placement. Correct?

I think the underlying thought that Sony has given Konami "something" for exclusivity is probably correct. Sony has gone on the record stating that they would be willing to pay for exclusive content/games. I have no problem with that concept. In light of MS tactics with 3rd parties, I hope and pray that Sony buys some exclusives for us.

I may have been a bit off in my initial response and I apologize.

So does this mean the big spoiler everyone is avoiding for MGS4 is that The Burger King is somehow the final boss?

Zack - I'd shut up with the whole JRPGs don't sell on the console fanboy speak until we see PS3 RPGs bomb ;)

Here is an example of what may have happened:

(1) Konami pretends (or seriously considers) that it may release MGS 4 for the Xbox 360.  To add weight to these statements, they announce publically that they're considering it and that they're not happy with PS3 sales performance. 

(2) Konami wants Sony to give them marketing budget, favorable licensing rates, a bundle and/or cash to keep the game exclusive.  Konami wants kickbacks if the bundle sells very well implying that the game is selling PS3s.

(3) Sony eventually caves, but wants Konami to serve Sony with a lot of product placement.  

(4) Konami agrees, they have a contract for exclusivity over some period of time (say, 1 year minimum but perhaps as much as 3 years).

Konami will obviously never agree to a permanent exclusivity contract with Sony for one of its games, because they may want to release an essential collection for multiple patforms in the future, or maybe they'll want to put MGS 4 on cell phones in a few years.  Whatever, but they're obviously not going to permanently sign away the rights for the game.