Kojima Productions is now the owner of the IP for Death Stranding. This is a pretty big deal as up until recently, Sony were the owners of Death Stranding, as if generally the case when it comes to publishers. Remember, publishers are the ones that have to foot the costs of both developing and marketing the games. It is also the publishers that receive the majority of all revenue, which can cause cash flow issues for independent developers.
Death Stranding was the first game to be created by Hideo Kojima upon his controversial departure from Konami and was developed using the Decima engine, which is owned by Guerrilla Games, one of the many Sony owned studios.
It is interesting to note that Death Stranding originally released for the PlayStation 4 on 8th November 2019 because on 7th November 2024, the game saw a surprise release on both Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and S consoles.
What this means for Death Stranding 2 is up in the air, with plenty speculating it could also make its way across to Xbox consoles, which is almost certainly to be the case. However, at what point this would happen is unknown. The most likely outcome is that it will be once again a timed exclusive, though whether it will be a further five years is something we won’t likely know until nearer the end of the timed exclusivity deal with Sony.
What is also something to consider is what this means for the other games in development at Kojima Productions? At the moment, there are two games based on brand new IP being developed. First is OD for Microsoft’s platforms though this has yet to be officially confirmed which. It is probable that we won’t see OD release until next generation Xbox consoles are launched. The second game is currently under the working title of Physint. This is more likely to be far enough out that it won’t release on the PlayStation 5.
Does Kojima Productions also own the IP to both these new games? If so, then that also means we should expect to see timed exclusivity on their respective consoles.
Whatever happens, we are looking forward to whatever Hideo Kojima releases.
