Metal Gear Online Beta Delayed

Konami has delayed the launch of the Metal Gear Online Beta, originally slated to start on April 21.

The group behind Metal Gear Solid 4 apologised for the delay and explained they would be unable to cope with the number of players at the moment, due to unexpected demand.

The announcement made no mention of when the beta would start but said that would be decided on soon.

"Due to extraordinary levels of traffic from all around the globe, we have been unable to run the service to the level we expected," Konami explained in a statement.

"We will be deferring the start of the US public beta test until we are able to stabilise our server."

Metal Gear Online, a PS3 exclusive, is the first online title in the series and will be included with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

The tactical team game will be set in the same environment as MGS4 and feature the same control system but will have additional downloadable maps and characters.