Hideo Kojima admits references to himself in Death Stranding 2 are all his own doing, even if it "might cause certain people to cringe hard"

Hideo Kojima loves to drop little references to Hideo Kojima in his games – and Death Stranding 2 is no different – but he's admitted that it's all him, and that his team at Kojima Productions won't humor him.

Kojima-themed Easter eggs have been a thing in the director's games for decades at this point. From Policenauts onward, almost every single Kojima game has had some form of cameo from the man himself, from the posters in Metal Gear Solid 1, to becoming a recruitable staff member in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain. But as it turns out, Kojima himself puts these in much to the chagrin of his staff at Kojima Productions.

Speaking to GameSpark (and translated by Automaton and machine translation), Kojima is asked if the Easter eggs surrounding him in Death Stranding 2 were something his development team snuck in, but Kojima admits: "All of that stuff was added by me."

He says that when he would ask his staff to add these self-referential bits into the games that they would pretend not to hear him. Kojima admits that the references "might cause certain people to cringe hard," but clearly that won't stop him, otherwise he would've given up on it 30 years ago.

Granted, the references in both Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2 aren't quite as in-your-face as the cameos Kojima had in the last few Metal Gear Solid titles, so I'm sure people will be able to stomach a character name-dropping Kojima Productions and having the words "phantom pain" said multiple times during the Moby Dick monologue.

Check out our Death Stranding 2 review if you're still on the fence, or you have Death Stranding 2's ending explained if you've beaten the game and are still a bit lost.