“We’re doing this as a precautionary measure,” said Konami spokesman Ron Freidman at a hastily-organized press conference earlier this morning. “At this time we are asking everyone who purchased the Metal Gear Solid 4 at Best Buy, Walmart, Gamestop, Target, Circuit City, or Microcenter in the United States to visit our website for instructions on exhanging your disc.”

Salmonella is being blamed as the culprit for the recall, and while there have been no confirmed cases of gamers falling ill, the company is taking zero chances with the health of its franchise fans.

Salmonella bacteria have been known to survive all sorts of industrial processes in the past, showing up on everything from blue jeans to steering wheels, and normally causes symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, and fever.

This marks the first health-related… recall of a video game in the history of the medium.

Dr Gil Tupelo, of the American Association of Pathology and Illness explained why Konami is NOT over-reacting to this situation.

“While at first glance, it might seem impossible for a primarily food-borne illness to be transmitted by a video game,” said Dr. Tupelo, “the contaminant took a rather unlikely route to become a threat to game enthusiasts. In an effort to reduce the environmental footprint left by the massive production run of Metal Gear Solid 4, Konami used a special, new, tomato-based ink on more than 50% of the initial copies.”

Friedman told reporters how Konami became aware of the situation.

“Late yesterday, the A J Daw Ink Printing Company, out of Grand Prairie, Texas, notified us that some of the tomato pulp used in the ink rendering process did indeed come from stock suspected of contamination. We immediately implemented our Consumer Protection contingency plan at Konami, and are making every effort to notify our fans of the problem, and instruct them on what to do if they purchased an affected copy of the game.”

Last week, tomatoes across the US were recalled over salmonella concerns, with dozens of people hospitalized after apparently consuming the contaminated vegetable. Now, Konami joins the unlikely ranks of McDonalds, Chik fil-a, Walmart, and Burger king in the recall of one of the most consumed vegetables in the country. (Corn being #1)

“Printing with the tomato-free inks has already gone into full production,” said Freidman. “We should be able to reissue discs to recall participants within the next 30 days. Until then we are urging eveyone in posession of the possibly-contaminated discs to practice proper handwashing and to avoid opening or touching the game disc.”

Freidman also warned that it is not yet known if the salmonella bacteria can jump from disc to disc.

“As hard as this is for some people to bear, you should not put the disc into the Playstation 3 system, until you have determined whether or not yours is considered safe,” said Friedman. “If in doubt, exchange it. That’s the bottom line here.”

No word yet, on whether Konami plans to implement any sort of renumeration for fans inconvenienced by this unprecedented turn of events.

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