Death Stranding 2: Everything we know so far

Death Stranding 2 is a few weeks way now, with the release date just around the corner, and in the lead up to launch, we've been getting plenty of exciting details about the highly anticipated follow-up to2019's Death Stranding.

Alongside Hideo Kojima taking the stage to introduce a new clip during the Summer Game Fest Live 2025 showcase. We also got a dedicated Death Stranding 2 game premiere stream, which ran for over an hour. With some of the cast on speaking on the experience of working with Kojima, we also got to see the first five minutes of the game, along with a cutscene featuring Rainy and Tomorrow.

Officially titled Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, it looks set to bring us a truly ambitious adventure, with themes of connection and a greater emphasis on combat. While the sequel is set to be one of the biggest games for 2025, we'll have more to look forward to in the future, with a lineup of upcoming Hideo Kojima games in the works - including horror project OD and the "action espionage" game, Physinct. Set to land on Sony's console among the upcoming PS5 game on the near horizon, join us as we recap everything we know so far about Death Stranding 2.

Death Stranding 2 news

• Death Stranding 2 technical director says that the jump from PS4 to PS5 "isn't so great," it's just "more efficient"
• Dark Souls 2 fans remind Death Stranding 2 director Hideo Kojima that he won’t be taking the DS2 acronym that easily
• Legendary Metal Gear Solid artist Yoji Shinkawa pens exclusive Death Stranding 2 art for the latest issue of Edge Magazine
• Death Stranding and The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus doesn't think "anybody can understand" what's going on in Hideo Kojima's brain
• Hideo Kojima once considered he might only "have 10 years" left to create new things, and he's given his assistant "a USB stick with all my ideas" as a kind of "will"
• Hideo Kojima is still hung up on his ex, as Death Stranding 2 features a Metal Gear Solid doppelganger the director says is the spitting image of Solid Snake
• Hideo Kojima seems to be testing Death Stranding 2, but it's not going well: "I fell asleep twice while on a delivery and ran the vehicle into a cliff"
• Hideo Kojima shows 9 seconds of Death Stranding 2 title screen footage and warns that it's "very much temporary"

Death Stranding 2 release date

The Death Stranding 2 release date is set for June 26, 2025, with the date announced in a new 10-minute trailer shown at SXSW by Hideo Kojima.

Confirmation of a release date for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach came during Hideo Kojima's panel at SXSW panel on March 9. After revealing we could expect to see it arrive in 2025, the brand new trailer surprised audiences by revealing a June 26 launch date, alongside the announcement of a Collector's edition for the upcoming PS5 exclusive.

Death Stranding 2 platforms

Death Stranding 2 has been confirmed for PS5, and Kojima Productions is yet to reveal whether it will arrive on other platforms.

When Death Stranding launched in 2019, it did so as a PS4 exclusive. Publisher 505 Games later helped bring Death Stranding to PC in 2020, while Death Stranding: Director's Cut was later brought to PS5 and PC Game Pass. Were we to speculate for a second: It's highly likely that Death Stranding 2 is being developed as a long-time PS5 exclusive, given how heavily involved PlayStation Studios is with its production, but there is every chance that it will come to PC eventually – given how heavily Sony continues to invest in the space outside of the core PlayStation ecosystem.

Death Stranding 2 pre-order

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach pre-orders are now live ahead of the June release date. Pre-orders went live as of March 17, which was originally confirmed at the SWSX panel, where we got our first look at the Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Collector's Edition, with details also dropping on the Digital Deluxe Edition and pre-order bonus.

The Collector's Edition is priced at $229.99 and will include a digital game download, collector's box, 48-hour Early Access, a 15inch Magellan Man Statue, a 3inch Dollman Figurine, a letter from Hideo Kojima, and art cards. You also bag yourself a myriad of in-game items, including various weapons, cosmetic patches, and gear.

The Digital Deluxe Edition has a $79.99 price tag and includes 48-hour Early Access and in-game items including an early unlock of a machine gun, along with pre-order bonuses such as the custom Hologram of a Quokka, and other gear-based items.

The standard digital edition costs $69.99, and the pre-order bonus for all editions includes the full game alongside the Quokka Hologram early unlock, and the Battle, Boost, and Bokka power skeletons for Sam.

Death Stranding 2 trailer

Kojima Productions revealed the first Death Stranding 2 trailer at The Game Awards 2022. The four-minute long teaser trailer didn't show any direct gameplay, but it did give us a sense of how the world and characters have changed since Sam Porter Bridges removed his Cuff links and severed his connection with the Bridges corporation. Naturally, there's a lot to unpack in here, and Death Stranding 2 director Hideo Kojima teases that "You've just seen the trailer, and I've put a lot of things inside, so I want you to talk about it and find details in it."

We also got some new Death Stranding 2 footage during the 2024 Tokyo Game Show. In Part 1 (which you can see for yourself down below) we meet Fragile again before being introduced to the new character Tarman, who's voiced by none other than Mad Max director, George Miller. To top it all off, we also also get a closer look at a submarine that we'll be using in-game.

In Part 2 we see a clip of two young girls discussing their past and one of their pregnancies. The two characters are introduced as Tomorrow and Rainy. Tomorrow is voiced by none other than Elle Fanning. Although, in this clip not much gameplay is shown and it's unclear how we'll be working with the two in the future as of right now.

Part 3 shows us Heartman again with lots of eerie vibes, but Part 4 is one of the most exciting new clips, as it shows off the game's new photo mode. The teaser demonstrates how characters will pose and react to the camera, making all your photos look more polished and cool.

An extensive 10-minute pre-order trailer later dropped at the SXSW March 2025 panel with Hideo Kojima. In it, we see some story hints and various clips of the world, including shots of different vehicles in action, and a lengthy look at the cast, as Sam is seen traversing various climates and landscapes as he transports boxes (and even at one point a person). You can watch the full trailer below to get a feel for what's in store.

Death Stranding 2 screenshots

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With these Death Stranding 2 screenshots, you can get a better look than ever before at the unusual and dangerous world that Kojima Productions is crafting for this long-awaited sequel. While the natural draw is some of the A-list talent Hideo Kojima has drawn to this project, these screenshots also show off some of the larger-than-life environments and combat encounters we'll experience in the final game. Be sure to scroll through the gallery above to see them all.

Death Stranding 2 engine

Death Stranding 2 will be powered by Decima, the proprietary game engine created by Guerrilla Games. The studio's engine is behind Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West, and the original Death Stranding, and has helped set new benchmarks for visual fidelity and the implementation of high-dynamic-range lighting on PS4 and PS5.

It has been confirmed that while Kojima Productions is leading development of Death Stranding 2, Guerrilla will support the studio for all things Decima. The Performance Capture seen in the Death Stranding 2 trailer was completed with assistance from the PlayStation Studios Visual Arts group, with the uncannily realistic digital humans powered by Epic Games' MetaHuman technology.

Death Stranding 2 cast

Hideo Kojima has announced the first run of actors set to form the Death Stranding 2 cast. As with the original game, Death Stranding 2 is packed with talent from across the video game and film industries.

While Kojima Productions is yet to unveil the full cast, we know that Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, and Troy Baker are returning following their first outing in 2019, while Elle Fanning (Super 8), Shioli Kutsuna (Deadpool 2), and director George Miller have also joined the cast.

Read the full Death Stranding 2 cast list below:

• Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges
• Lea Seydoux as Fragile
• Troy Baker as Higgs Monaghan
• Elle Fanning as Tomorrow
• Shioli Kutsuna as Rainy
• George Miller as Tarman
• Fatih Akin as Dollman
• Darren Jacobs as Heartman
•  Alissa Jung as Lucy
• Luca Marinelli as Neil

Death Stranding 2 story

Death Stranding 2 is set 11 months after events of the first game, and Sam Bridges has been made redundant by the Automated Porter Assistance System. Set to follow Sam and his companions as they "set out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction", the pre-order trailer sets the scene for the adventure to come:

"Eleven months after the birth of the UCA, servers line the beach", reads the text that introduces the pre-order trailer. "Deliveries have been automated. A plate gate connects the continents. A new ship rides the tar currents. Currents that shake the earth. A mysterious faction spreads. Chiralium warps the environment. The unending sixth extinction".

The mention of Chiralium is notable since it directly connects to the beach, and is present throughout the atmosphere of the world - how or why it's warping the environment, though, is something we'll have to discover for ourselves - perhaps it connects to the theory that we may see alternate realities. There's certainly lots to unpack from the trailer, and we're curious to see how it'll all come together.

In an interview in issue 411 of Edge magazine, Kojima also spoke on the thematic direction of the Death Stranding series which will no doubt continue to factor into Death Stranding 2, explaining that while "the loss of my father was a major theme in the Metal Gear series", Death Stranding "looks in the other direction" by giving us the parent's perspective "looking towards the child".

Interestingly, prior to dropping more detailed trailers, Kojima revealed that the entire story that was initially put together had been scrapped after the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at The Game Awards 2022, the director and writer said this of the Death Stranding 2 story: "I had the story written before the pandemic. But after experiencing the pandemic, I just rewrote the whole story from scratch." Kojima then added this comment with a smile, speaking to his uncanny ability to predict events through games like Metal Gear Solid 2 and Death Stranding, "I also didn't want to predict any more futures, so I rewrote it."

Kojima also later spoke with Edge Magazine about how isolation pushed him towards games that "don't already exist in the world", and spoke about how it felt as though people were no longer connected - connection once again looks set to be a big theme in the upcoming sequel.

Death Stranding 2 gameplay

The official PlayStation store page for Death Stranding 2 shed light on a few details on what's in store for the sequel. Described as an "open-world action-adventure game" played from a third-person perspective, it's said that "the player must deliver cargo, overcome enemies both human and otherworldly" and "explore a post-apocalyptic world by foot and vehicle".

Not unlike the first game, Death Stranding 2 will also feature "asynchronous multiplayer", where the creations or actions of other players "will become visible and useable" to you once you've connected to areas of the map.

The above 10-minute pre-order trailer gave which debuted at SXSW gave us another extensive look at Death Stranding 2, which showed off some of the otherworldly enemies, means of traversal, and characters we'll be meeting in the sequel.

Speaking with Edge magazine in issue 411, lead level designer Hiroaki Yoshiike also shed more light on the combat of Death Stranding 2, sharing that Kojima wanted the sequel to have "a clearer focus on combat" by giving players a "range of approaches", including Metal Gear Solid-style stealth. Yoshiike goes on to add that we can expect to make use of three main approaches: "stealth, direct combat, or avoiding encounters entirely by navigating rougher terrains, and taking the road less travelled".

In the Edge interview, Kojima also drew parallels between Death Stranding 2 and James Cameron's alien sequel, since On the Beach is set to introduce battles "to give it this new dimension".

Kojima also compared Death Stranding 2 to the East India company, while explaining that the first game was more representative of the Silk Road era. Interestingly, in order to "conjure the era of the East India Company when resources could move freely around the world," Kojima also hinted that it will be "represented by the prevalence of weapons" in the sequel, which certainly marries with the more combat-focused direction.

In the Death Stranding 2 game premiere during summer Game Fest 2025, Kojima showcased a cutscene that takes place in the DHV Magellan, which is a futuristic airship you now have from the company Sam works for known as Drawbridge. Kojima explains that this becomes a home, and acts as a moveable base, before showing us the first five minutes of the game in action.

Kojima also spoke on Higgs played by Troy Baker, saying that while there is a battle against him in the first game, "this time, I'm going to make you battle 3x times more, and you're going to go, 'Higgs again?', but at the end, you might cry a bit". Sounds like there will be lots of twists and turns to come.

Here's why we hope that Death Stranding 2 is a smarter, leaner adventure than its predecessor – with a wider focus on exploration and social connection.