Hideo Kojima unpacks struggles behind Death Stranding 2 development

As Sony gears up to release Death Stranding 2, its creator, Hideo Kojima, has reflected on the challenges he faced during the development of the game.

The game is set to be released on June 26, around six years after the launch of Death Stranding.

The original title became a fan-favourite as soon as it hit the shelves, and fans had been asking Hideo Kojima to develop a sequel.

The notable game developer is finally set to release the sequel game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, later this week.

Ahead of the game’s release, Hideo Kojima reflected on the challenges he faced when he first began working on the sequel.

“I planned Death Stranding 2 before the pandemic and was already testing some things out, but after the pandemic hit, I fell quite ill. For the first time in my life, I thought I could never make another game, and I felt very isolated. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t even visit the hospital. I was in a crisis unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before in my life,” he said during a recent interview with a US media outlet.

However, Kojima picked himself up and kept working on the game for the sake of his company.

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“No one at Kojima Productions came to the office either; I was the only one there. Yoji came maybe twice a week or so. I was all alone and had no one to talk to about my ideas. The only form of communication was through email, and those were used to just send reports. Creating something in an environment like that was extremely difficult,” the Death Stranding 2 developer said.

Hideo Kojima revealed that he directed the performance capture, all shot in LA, remotely from Tokyo due to global travel restrictions.

“But remote work was very inefficient. Progress on game development was very slow. It was different from shooting a movie where everyone gathered on set and filmed together, after passing inspections for COVID,” he said.

The notable game developer also faced a shortage of staff as he revealed that new hires would come for a day and then vanish.

“You don’t get to learn who they are or understand them. Even on Zoom calls, some people blur their background, so you can’t tell where they are or what they’re doing,” he said.

Kojima finally expedited work on Death Stranding 2 in 2022 when the team was allowed to travel to LA to do performance capture.

“That night, we went out to dinner with the actors, and I thought, ‘This is what we need.’ We need to be together, shoot together, and celebrate together,” he said.

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