Hideo Kojima’s upcoming video game Death Stranding was originally announced as a PlayStation 4 exclusive, but recent rumblings suggest that may be about to change.
The official list of PS4 exclusives on the Australian PlayStation site has recently removed any mention of Kojima’s “action strand” game, as spotted on ResetEra. According to Wayback Machine, Death Stranding was included on the list as of May 31 this year, so while it’s not entirely clear why it’s vanished, its absence has led to speculation that it’s soon to be announced for another platform.
As VG247 points out, the game’s cover art also seems to be missing the “Only On PlayStation” branding that you can expect to see on other PlayStation exclusives such as Marvel’s Spider-Man and God of War. It’s also worth noting that Kojima Productions and Sony only ever referred to Death Stranding as “console exclusive”, implying that a PC release could well be on the cards.
The plot gets juicer still. As reported by The Sixth Axis, a recent tweet from the PlayStation Spain account posted in response to a fan asking whether or not the game would be exclusive, writing “Hi! Currently the only platform announced for the launch of Death Stranding is PS4.”
Fans were quick to point out the use of the word “currently” was a little suspect, as it implies Death Stranding will be announced for another platform at a later date. PlayStation Spain have since deleted the tweet, which only makes it look more like the account shared something it wasn’t supposed to.
We also know that Hideo Kojima is a guest at Geoff Keighley’s Gamescom opening night show, where a number of reveals are planned – could this be the stage for the announcement of Death Stranding on PC?
The recent appearance of Quantic Dream’s previously PlayStation-exclusive games on PC has shown that it’s not impossible for PlayStation titles to end up on other platforms, though the likelihood of Death Stranding on PC depends entirely on the deal in place between Kojima and Sony.
While Death Stranding could indeed be coming to PC, it’s also just as likely that the game could make the jump to the impending PlayStation 5. The first three Uncharted games and The Last of Us were tarted up for release on PS4 after starting off as PS3 games, so it’s not inconceivable that Kojima Productions could be doing something similar with Death Stranding.
Wherever Death Stranding ends up, I think we can all agree Xbox One is the least likely scenario. Expect it on PS4 first when it launches November 8.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.