After a 4 year run and three expansions later, Konami’s announced that the servers that power Metal Gear Online will be shut down in the coming months – effective June 12.

The title was bundled in with US copies of Metal Gear Solid 4, while Japan saw a standalone release. Konami was hit with a hefty amount of criticism over its decision to rely on a separate ID system, circumventing PSN’s own login. Frequent bouts of downtime also plagued the title as Konami struggled to cope with server load. A rocky launch and inconveniences aside, it still managed to attract a peak of 1.3 million users – which isn’t shabby at all.

Konami is taking a three pronged approach to the closure. Players can expect the online shop to shut down next month on March 21, while April 21 brings free availability of all expansion packs and Preset Codec Message Appeal Packs. On June 12 it’s lights out.

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