Hideo Kojima has shared some updated on making Death Stranding 2: On The Beach on his personal Twitter. But it looks like he has had to keep making clarifications as fans keep jumping to conclusions.
Everything started innocuously enough a few hours ago. He shared a photo of himself using a silver DualSense, and another close up picture of the DualSense itself, with this caption:
“Been building the game. Some people said that my controller was dirty, so changed to this one.”
About two hours later, he quoted this tweet to share even more information. He said this:
“Many people have misunderstood, so I let me add. This is not adjusting the difficulty level. It’s the building stage. adjustment.
Brushing up and adding details to the feel of the controls, direction, graphics (backgrounds, models, effects), gameplay, camera, missions, UI, explanations and hints, scenario, sound, level design, characters, cut scenes, systems, etc. while playing the game many times.”
And a few minutes after that he shared this nugget:
“In the past, I used to send notes to the staff on paper, but nowadays I use digital tools. But that sometimes doesn’t convey what I really want to say, so I walk over to the staff that’s actually doing that part. Happening all here.”
While it’s hard to guess exactly what comments Kojima was reacting to, it seems that he’s just fending off any suggestion that Kojima Pro is struggling in Death Stranding 2’s development. Fans may have gotten this impression as Kojima stated a few days ago that they have decided on Death Stranding 2’s final release date in 2025, but cannot share the date yet due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
So perhaps fans read something more ominous in that announcement than is actually in there. There are a dozen possible reasons not to share Death Stranding 2’s release date yet. The obvious one, of course, would be that they’re saving the announcement for a huge event. That could be in this year’s upcoming The Game Awards, or it could be in a major presentation or event held by Sony.
Kojima is also known to be a fastidious game designer, meticulous with as many minute details as possible. Regardless, the preliminary work on Death Stranding 2 reportedly started in 2020, with Koji Pro making the official announcement in 2022. That’s more than enough time for Koji Pro to finish making the game, though it will likely be coming at the tail end of 2025. In any case, Kojima’s loyal fanbase will wait if his next game takes another five years to release, so we should just look forward to that day.