Perhaps the single most unexpected news PlayStation 3 gamers could have possibly received broke overnight. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which launched exclusively on the PS3 more than four years ago, is getting a Trophy patch. Kojima himself confirmed the news by detailing a “budget version” of Metal Gear Solid 4 that catalyzed the creation of said patch.

Heavenly Sword

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Mega Man 9

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Resistance: Fall of Man

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

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Valkyria Chronicles

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This move has brought up an interesting question for the PlayStation faithful that have been eagerly awaiting Trophy patches for other games. If Metal Gear Solid 4 can be patched so long after it came out, why can’t some other older games also get patched? Trophies were first released in 2008 (with Super Stardust HD being the first game to get ‘em), and Trophies didn’t become mandatory until 2009. So our five prime candidates for Trophies below are all from the early days of the PlayStation 3.Let’s jump in.Released in the summer of 2007, Heavenly Sword was far too early to market to get Trophy consideration. But it was still a good game from a solid developer (Ninja Theory). The story of protagonist Nariko was an interesting one, and the action-oriented third-person combat, while button-mashy, was still quite satisfying.The thing is, while Ninja Theory was plenty vocal about wanting to continue its PS3-exclusive series, Heavenly Sword ended up ultimately being a one-off and the studio moved on to other multi-console titles, including Enslaved and the upcoming reboot of Capcom’s Devil May Cry. So Ninja Theory going back to patch Heavenly Sword is exceptionally unlikely. Still, it would be a great idea should Sony want to revive the series using a different developer, bringing attention back to the original game in the meantime.When Mega Man 10 came to PSN in early 2010 it toted one of the most difficult rosters of Trophies of any PS3 game before or since (and yes, I have all but one of those Trophies). But Mega Man 9, having come out two years earlier in 2008, was released too early for Trophy love. And regrettably, Capcom never went back to rectify the situation, stripping Mega Man 9 of an equally-difficult list of demanding Trophies.How do I know that Capcom’s vision for Mega Man 9’s Trophies would be equally as devious as Mega Man 10’s? One only needs to look at its release on Xbox Live, which came strapped with Achievements. Many of those Achievements are the same as the Trophies in Mega Man 10, so you know full-well what you’re getting into. Beat the game without dying? Beat the game without getting hit?! Good luck! The same Achievements being carried over to the PlayStation version would be a real treat.Insomniac Games’ launch title for the PlayStation 3 came out way back in late 2006, far too early for initial Trophy consideration. But Nathan Hale’s first battle against the devious Chimera would do well with Trophies, even though the roster would be exceptionally hard to complete. Just think of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, which got a Trophy patch well after the game originally came out. Its Trophies were tied to its in-game medals system, and Fall of Man had an outrageously hard in-game achievement system that Trophies could also be attached to.See, Resistance: Fall of Man actually had a real shot of getting Trophies, but the opportunity was never taken advantage of. In anticipation of Resistance 3, which came out in 2011, Fall of Man and Resistance 2 were bundled together and sold as a set. So Fall of Man would obviously get a patch, right? Wrong! Insomniac confirmed that this wouldn’t be the case, disappointing fans of the series everywhere. But that won't stop us from making our plea one last time.Like Resistance: Fall of Man, Oblivion came to PS3 too soon for mandatory Trophy support, but it had a chance to get patched when Bethesda rereleased the game last year to get people hyped up for the then-incoming Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. But like Insomniac, Bethesda didn’t patch the game for Trophies, and an audible sigh from the community came as a result.The frustrating thing about Oblivion is that it’s made for Trophies. As a western-RPG, Trophies give gamers a reason to see every facet and every inch of a game that’s already overwhelmingly vast. Oblivion would still make an awesome candidate for a Trophy patch, but if Bethesda wasn’t inclined to do it when it rereleased the game before Skyrim launched, then it certainly won’t do it now, right? Still, we’ll make the case for it yet again.The final game on our list of five is also the most likely to get a Trophy patch. In fact, other than Metal Gear Solid 4, it has to be the single game that has received the most requests for the inclusion of Trophies. Valkyria Chronicles came out in late 2008, so it could have had Trophies (after all, some of its contemporaries certainly did), but it snuck onto the market mere months before Trophies became mandatory. As such, gamers willing to play the strategy RPG had to do so without the satisfying ding of digital rewards.SEGA’s recent financial hardships are well-documented, and Valkyria Chronicles getting any Trophy love continues to be unlikely. But MGS4 getting Trophies has given us renewed hope that perhaps it’s a possibility after all. Still, with Valkyria Chronicles II getting shoved to PSP and Valkyria Chronicles III not only remaining on PSP but lacking a western localization, it appears the series may be dead outside of the Japanese market, giving SEGA even fewer reasons to double back with a patch.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.