Konami's Michael Shelling, speaking on the Kojima Productions podcast, has announced that Konami has no plans to release a demo for the upcoming PS3-exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots on the PlayStation Network.

With the game having been delayed until Q1 2008, many gamers were looking forward to the possibility of giving MGS4 a test drive before it hits store shelves. This news, as reported today by 1up.com, comes as a crushing disappointment as fans will now have to wait for the as yet unspecified release date to play the game.

Guns of the Patriots is the fourth game in the revered stealth-action series starring mercenary Solid Snake. The last game in the series, Snake Eater, was set in the jungles of Cold War-era Soviet Union. MGS4 directly follows the plot of MGS2: Sons of Liberty, with trailers indicating that the game takes place in the middle of a full-scale war with the central location being somewhere in the Middle East. However, with MGS4 Director Hideo Kojima's penchant for surprising players, it would be best to expect the unexpected.

Although Kojima has been saying it since before MGS2's release, he states that Guns of the Patriots will be the last game in the series that he will direct. Speculation has risen that MGS4 will also bring about the end of Solid Snake's story in the Metal Gear universe.