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No director, whether in a game’s production or elsewhere, is solely responsible for their team’s artistic vision. But there is perhaps no man who currently enjoys a greater freedom to realize his creative whims than Hideo Kojima, and that freedom just got broader. Yesterday, Kojima Productions, the development studio founded by Kojima in 2015 following his departure from Konami, announced that it had acquired full ownership of the intellectual property rights to its Death Stranding series from publisher 505 Games.
“Kojima Productions will continue its focus on bringing their award-winning IP, Death Stranding to more platforms and audiences,” the studio said in an announcement timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Death Stranding’s original 2019 release as a PS4 exclusive, after which it made its way onto PC in 2020 (with its Director’s Cut edition following in 2022). To celebrate the occasion, it’s also currently at a 50% discount on Steam and the Epic Games store.
Death Stranding is the second IP that 505 Games has agreed to relinquish to its creators in 2024. In February, Remedy Entertainment made an $18.4 million deal with 505, which granted the studio all rights to Control, Control 2, the recently-unveiled FPS multiplayer spinoff FBC: Firebreak, and “all future Control products.”
Death Stranding has its own sequel in the works; we’re still waiting on word for when PC players can take Sam out for a stumble across new post-apocalyptic hillsides, but Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is due for a Sony-published launch on PlayStation 5 sometime in 2025. There’s also a Death Stranding movie in production as a collaboration with A24, the film producer and distributor that brought us bangers like Midsommar and Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Wherever Death Stranding goes from there, it’ll be Kojima and co. piloting the series ship towards whatever baffling, indulgent destination they desire. Gaining control of the IP rights means that the limiters are off—aside from whatever publishing deals and partnerships they might enter into in the future, of course. Hopefully, Death Stranding will only get weirder.
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Kurt Indovina
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