Microsoft will publish top-of-the-line console ports

Want to play Metal Gear Solid on the PC? How about Silent Hill? An interesting bit of news from Microsoft right on the eve of the big E3 show - it seems the software giant has teamed up with console game heavyweight Konami to cross-publish each other's games on their respective platforms.

That means Microsoft will be publishing PC versions of many of Konami's upcoming games currently in development for next generation console systems, while Konami will port some of Microsoft's PC games to the dedicated gaming machines.

"This agreement allows us to make our games available to all gamers across multiple platforms for the first time. Konami are one of the largest and most respected console publishers, and we trust their expertise in bringing Microsoft games to the console," said Ed Fries, general manager of the Microsoft's games division. "At the same time, we see this as a great opportunity to expand the breadth and quality of our PC games portfolio by publishing some of Konami's best console games for the PC."

Konami were also pleased with the deal.

"Microsoft and Konami are both committed to producing the world's finest games," said Kazumi Kitaue, managing director of Konami's consumer software division. "We are pleased to be entering into this strategic relationship, as it will allow us to leverage our position as one of the world's largest publishers of console titles and to watch Konami games flourish on the PC platform."

Specific titles were not mentioned in the announcement, though recent Konami games of note include Silent Hill, Castlevania 64 and Metal Gear Solid.

Courtesy of IGN