Yeah, in case you missed it, it's not so much of a formal "goes gold" announcement, but Hideo Kojima himself has stated during last week's Konami Gamers' Day that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is indeed finished. Ryan Payton and Ken Iamizumi of Konami attest to it. More than this though, we get a couple more last minute details about the game before it finally explodes into retail on June 12.

Speaking to MTV Multiplayer, Ryan Payton clears up the confusion of some gamers thinking that it's the last Metal Gear title. As Payton explained, "this is really just the last chapter of the saga of the Solid Snake story" and not necessarily the end of Metal Gear. Payton later adds:

[Solid Snake] was a burden [for Kojima] because of all those loose ends. So when you play Metal Gear Solid 4 and when you get to the end, I think you’re going to feel that ‘wow, this is a nice closure.’ All of the weird stuff that’s gone on in the past, it’s all coming to an end. All those weird questions - everything is answered.

Ok. So what say we have a Johnny Sasaki-centered MGS title? Ha, we kid. But moving on... Payton and Iamizumi spilled the beans on what really went on in that April 1 video we playfully dubbed as "Metal Creed Solid: Assassins of the Patriots." Yeah, we're sure you remember that.

Turns out that initial speculations were right: an Altair costume is added as a bonus in Metal Gear Solid 4! Now how did that happen really? Hideo Kojima and Jade Raymond finally hit it off? Well, turns out that they were introduced during last year's E3, and come Tokyo Game Show, they had a bit of a bonding moment: the result of which was the inclusion of the Assassin's Creed costume.

Ryan Payton details that it was actually one of the last features they've incorporated in the game during its development cycle. Ken Iamizumi adds that this last minute addition - any last minute addition, for that matter - isn't regular procedure. Payton agrees, saying that "it’s very dangerous because of the code and bug checking."

When asked about how Kojima and Raymond managed to make ends meet between their publishers (Konami and Ubisoft are technically competitors, still), Ryan Payton affirms that it was all for the love of the game:

I think it’s a testament to the Ubisoft Montreal team. Ubisoft - which is a very dynamic company - I just don’t see them getting stuck in all that red tape. Rather than try to figure out some royalty sharing it was ‘let’s just do this, this’ll be fun.'

Man. And we thought this last month couldn't get any more excruciating of a wait!