After a listing on its site created a bit of a stir amongst Xbox gamers keen to grab a piece of Solid Snake’s latest outing, retailer HMV has now stated that a dated release for a 360 version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was a mistake.

“In his enthusiasm, one of our online games team indicated that hmv.co.uk would start taking pre-orders for MGS4 on Xbox 360, when, in fact, he simply meant to ask customers if they wished to receive an alert in the event of this title one day coming out on this platform,” HMV told GamesIndustry.

“We're sorry to have caused such a stir - the oversight has now been corrected.”

However, the whole episode is unlikely to quell the ongoing rumours that a 360 version of Konami’s latest is indeed in the works – though the saga seems unlikely to reach a resolution anytime soon.

And for the record, HMV claimed that the PS3 version is due to arrive on April 18th, with the seemingly fictional 360 iteration arriving five months later on September 26th.