We’re fresh into the new year. 2025 already has quite a calendar of upcoming and anticipated video game releases. However, developers hope they can progress on some of the newer game productions. A big component that might be holding some development studios back right now is the ongoing strikes. If you don’t recall, SAG-AFTRA had started a strike with the video game industry and its actors over generative AI. One developer who has been feeling the strikes is Hideo Kojima.
Hideo Kojima recently took to X and shared a small update with his followers. The update focused on his current projects, including Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, OD, and Physint. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach seems to be progressing well. As noted by Gamespot, anything under development that began before September 2023 is not a part of the strike. So developers can continue working on these games with actors. That was the case for the upcoming Death Stranding sequel, but not for OD and Physint.
Kojima noted that OD was in development and that the studio was undergoing scanning. This scanning process included environments and actors, which halted with the strike. Likewise, Physint was undergoing casting when that process was also forced to cease while the strikes continued. Of course, we hope to see the development kick back into full gear this year after a deal is made with the industry and SAG-AFTRA.
For OD, we developed the game and had actor and environment scanning. In the second half of the year, scanning and filming were suspended due to the SAG strike. Casting was also suspended for Physint due to the strike. – Hideo Kojima
While we wait for those two productions to get going again, we are expecting Death Stranding 2: On the Beach to launch later this year. Unfortunately, we don’t have a specific release date to attach to this game, but we will see it available on the PlayStation 5 platform when it is released. In the meantime, you can check out the statement in full from Hideo Kojima on the matter in the embedded X post above.
