Cognition Dissemination: On the Beach, and Beyond

The first State of Play this year proved one thing above all the others: Hideo Kojima’s still got it.

The fuller reveal for Death Stranding 2, first announced at The Game Awards back in 2022, was saved for last during the presentation for very good reason. It needed to end with this considering the PlayStation console exclusives that preceded it.

The two other big showcases confirmed barely-disguised hints that both Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin will be Sony’s big titles this year. Stellar Blade looks fine for an action game with RPG elements, though its gameplay looks very “NieR: Automata at home” from the glimpse provided. But that’s fine enough when it’s been damn near seven years since Automata released, and there are no signs that a follow-up is coming anytime soon. Rise of the Ronin looks good, a Team Ninja game set to take the core gameplay fundamentals of the Nioh games and Wo Long, though it still looks a tad unpolished in places. There’s still time for them to patch it up before late next month however.

Gaming communities tend to expect too much of the world from these presentations. Sony Interactive Entertainment knows this, and similarly knew that their endings are what stick with the audience that watches these for the, let’s say, two weeks they’ll think about it afterward. They had to end it with a look at Death Stranding 2, preview for a title made by one of the best trailer directors in the game development world.

(The fact that Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin might be Sony’s only big titles this year is also an issue, but let’s save that for another post I may or may not make.)

The full name is now Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, with the aforementioned new trailer trailer living up to that name by being stuffed to the brim with delightfully bizarre shit. From the small hands around Fragile’s neck that work as a facemask and even light cigarettes for her to the baby in a womb that coughed up a miniature drone, it was packed full of imagery that will stick with anyone for weeks afterward whether they like Kojima or not. The man may not smoke himself, but he sure thinks of innovative ways to make it look cool in his games. A whole post could be made about this stuff, but I’m not here for that.

The previous trailer revealed that Higgs has returned from the previous game, now rocking a lethal guitar like a Devil May Cry, Guilty Gear, or Darkstalkers character. He also takes off his mask to reveal a Joker-like face, as if Kojima read an old-but-still great dril tweet and made that an in-game reality. It’s even better that he’s voiced by Troy Baker, who’s portrayed the Joker in video games and animated content before. The game will even have a Cyber Ninja, because Kojima can’t give those up either. The ventriloquist dummy with film director Faith Akin’s likeness with a deliberately low framerate is also incredible, and I’m dying to know the animation process for it.

Another aspect I can’t stop thinking about is the game having Mad Max and upcoming Furiosa director George Miller’s likeness for a character. Similar to Nicolas Winding Refn and Guillermo Del Toro in the first game, though, he’s not voiced by him, but by Marty Rhone. The trailer also provides hints about Elle Fanning’s role, and might show Shioli Kutsuna. It’s another star-studded cast in a Kojima game.

Death Stranding 2 won’t release until sometime in 2025, which leaves Kojima Productions and Sony plenty of time to show off the gameplay in further detail. We have, to be fair, seen more gameplay for this game than we did for the first game at this point. DS2 is bound to play similarly to its predecessor, with a strong focus on braving harsh conditions to mail packages. We’ll soon see how similar or different it is.

Sony and Kojima could have just ended with that segment. They didn’t have to mention that Kojima’s next project after DS2 is a brand-new action espionage title planned to be made for PlayStation platforms. The supposed codename for it is “Physint,” one that very well could be the final name considering prior Kojima naming schemes. It’s nice that he and the rest of the KojiPro team are returning to the genre that made him and them, respectively, popular. It’s even nicer that they’ll be doing so without the established baggage of the Metal Gear franchise.

Some kind of movie will go along with this. The fact that Sony’s also handling the film is proof of how conventional its concept will be compared to Death Stranding, the movie for which is being handled by A24, the independent studio that takes on vaguer and riskier ideas.

All that said, it’s not nice to consider how far off this project is. The gap between the two Death Stranding games will be more than five years, which means this game likely won’t arrive until 2030 at the earliest. The PlayStation 5 might be a last-gen console by that point, something mind-boggling to consider for anyone who’s still yet to join the “current generation” like me.

Kojima’s made it clear for years that he wants to continue being a creator for as long as he can, despite getting older. Between Death Stranding 2, Physint, and whatever the hell OD will turn out to be, it’s evident that age hasn’t slowed him down one bit. Even if not every element of these titles turns out well, it will nonetheless be interesting. That’s the safest claim I can make, and the most cowardly. But I’m leaving it there.