Death Stranding 2 was written before the pandemic, but illness and isolation had a heavy impact on Hideo Kojima and pushed him toward games that "don't already exist in the world"

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"I felt that perhaps I would never meet anyone again"

Death Stranding 2
(Image credit: Kojima Productions)

With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach right around the corner, we're ready to dive back into the post-apocalyptic world Kojima Productions first introduced in 2019. As we enter this next chapter, director Hideo Kojima finds himself reflecting on the unexpected parallel between the first game's continental rift and the real-world coronavirus pandemic that soon followed.

In a conversation with Edge magazine, Kojima discussed how he had already written the sequel by the time the pandemic hit, only for the state of the world to horrifyingly reflect the story he had told in Death Stranding.

"Something had been lost," he lamented, "Physically, we weren’t connected anymore."

At the time, this digital existence and his recovery reinvigorated Kojima's desire to make games "that don’t already exist in the world."

Sophie Ulanoff
Sophie Ulanoff
Contributor

Sophie is a freelance gaming writer with a love for a large range of genres, honing in on indies, RPGs, and narrative adventures. If a game makes them cry, it immediately earns a spot among their favorites. They particularly enjoy spotlighting new indie games as well as discussing everything going on in the gaming world. When they're not writing, they're working through their massive backlog or possibly crocheting.

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