Konami delays MGO beta in the US and Europe

In a statement on the Metal Gear Online beta's official site, Konami's delayed the test due to monster levels of demand.

We would like to thank all players for their keen interest in taking part in the beta test.

However, we regret to inform you that due to extraordinary levels of traffic from all around the globe, we have been unable to run the service to the level we expected.
As a temporary measure, we will be deferring the start of the US public beta test until we are able to stabilize our server.

We would like to apologize for all inconveniences as well as confusion caused.

We would like to add that due to the above reasons, we will be making the following changes to the schedule:

1) Starting date: TBA. We will be making another announcement on 22/4/2008 23:00(PDT)
2) Beta Test closure: This will now be on 11/05/2008 at 24:00(PDT) rather than 06/05/2008 at 24:00(PDT)

IMPORTANT: Please note that your voucher code will only be valid up until 05/06/2008, so please make sure to register them by then.

Whoops. It is, however, far better that it's stopped before it's started than to launch and not work. Give the Konami tech bods enough time to pop down to Maplins to pick up some more internets, innit.

Update: It's been delayed in Europe as well. Thanks, Dean.

Update 2: Konami Europe just put out a statement that makes it sound as though everything's going to go ahead as normal on April 21. Fingers crossed.