Hideo Kojima is not a man known for his subtlty, this much has always been known. The man who always shrouds himself and his games in mystery has been hard at work riling up fans about his next project, something that many expect at this point to be a sequel to 2019’s Death Stranding. Even this past week Kojima was teasing fans at PAX Australia, something this writer was there to confirm face-to-face with his very own eyeballs, leaning into his current “Who Am I”, “Where Am I” trend that he’s created. Now Kojima has set tongues wagging again sharing on Twitter his time hanging out with some of PlayStation’s senior marketing staff.
Eric Lempel, and Craig Malanka are the Senior Vice President of Marketing, and the Vice President of Global Marketing at PlayStation respectively, and so their appearance at Hideo Kojima’s studio, in photos that Kojima shared to his own personal Twitter account have certainly set off a number of alarm bells for fans who are anticipating news of a Death Stranding 2 in the coming months. The photos in question see the trio posing for photos next to Kojima’s Ludens statue in the studio, and while the intention in the photo is completely pure, it’s the reasons why Lempel and Malanka are in Japan with Kojima that are the mystery with a seemingly obvious answer – they’re together to work on a Death Stranding 2 marketing plan.
Kojima is a busy man though, and there’s always the chance that this could all be a coincidence, because it was only this June at the Xbox + Bethesda June Showcase that he confirmed what the internet had already deduced through some leaks… that he was working on a game with the competing console manufacturer, reportedly codenamed Overdose. Even earlier than that however, Death Stranding and The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus seeming spoke a little too soon, spilling the beans on a new Death Stranding game, something that Kojima felt deserved a clubbing with The Walking Dead‘s Lucille bat. Needless to say, this combination of events has stoked an enormous level of fan engagement as those same fans attempt to piece together what Kojima is actually up to next. It was only a month ago that rumours surfaced that Kojima Productions might be working on a VR title.
As fans continue to try to piece together the facts that we have available, from Elle Fanning‘s presence in whatever this game is, to VR talk, Xbox-exclusive titles, and now PlayStation marketing executives on the scene, Kojima is presumably hard at work on this new game and a new, mysterious way to further tease it. A prevailing theory is that the title will be revealed at Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards on December 8, 2022, given the pair’s tight friendship, but at this rate, the mystery won’t remain one for much longer, so who can really predict where this is going to go next.