When Sony updated the PlayStation Studios banner to include the walking simulator, fans took this as a sign that Kojima had officially joined forces with Sony. But, it appears that all of this talk is premature. According to Kojima, the Death Stranding studio “has been and will continue to be an independent studio.”
Normally, Kojima’s tweet would have ended the speculation. Except, it hasn’t. We shouldn’t forget that we are talking about Kojima. The Metal Gear creator has a reputation for tricking audiences. Not to mention, it wasn’t too long ago that another studio released a similar statement.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) April 15, 2022 Last year, Sony mistakenly leaked that it had acquired Bluepoint Games only for the studio to deny the buyout. A couple of months later, Sony made the purchase official. At this point, it’s difficult to tell if Kojima is just trolling us or if Sony had finally decided to just bring their longtime collaborator to the fold. Regardless of whether Kojima is working under the PlayStation Studios banner or not, we know that Sony will continue supporting him. 2019’s Death Stranding “borrowed” the proprietary game engine by Guerilla Games and Sony technically owns the said IP. After Norman Reedus confirmed that a sequel is in the works, we wouldn’t be surprised if Death Stranding 2 is also a timed-exclusive for the PlayStation 5 before it heads over to the PC, as Death Stranding did. Speaking of Kojima, following the PlayStation Plus rebrand, a trusted industry insider hinted that Sony is working on a way to emulate PS3 games natively. If this happens, Sony could find a way to finally make the PS3-exclusive Metal Gear Solid games like Metal Gear Solid 4 available on the PS4 and PS5 with Kojima’s help and Konami’s blessing.
