Hideo Kojima says next week's anniversary event for the Death Stranding maker is actually a "Strand" gathering to celebrate all the "connections" we’ve built together with all the “Sam-ones”

Hideo Kojima is hyping up next week's Kojima Productions 10th anniversary event Beyond The Strand for all the "Sam-ones."

The new iteration of Kojima Productions turns 10 years old this year. Following the last game Hideo Kojima made for Konami, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, The studio behind Death Stranding was announced to the world on December 16, 2015, and its first game Death Stranding releasing a little under 4 years later in 2019. To celebrate the anniversary, Kojima Productions announced the Beyond The Strand event.

In a Tweet, Kojima describes Beyond The Strand as "a fan event to celebrate Kojima Productions' 10th anniversary and the 'connections' we’ve built together with all the 'Sam-ones' and everyone involved." In this case I'd have to assume "Sam-ones" refers to people who have played Death Stranding, but it often feels impossible to actually figure out what Kojima is thinking sometimes.

He continued, "It’ll be a 'Strand' gathering where we’ll look back together on the past 10 years and think about the next 10 years". The announcement for Beyond The Strand mentioned that it "will include special guest appearances as well as offer a glimpse into future projects," so I think it's pretty much a given that we'll find out something about the upcoming Hideo Kojima games at this show.

Although given its status as a ticketed fan gathering, I'm not 100% confident that means a new trailer for OD or Physint will be shown, but stranger things have happened. Plus, Kojima did skip the PlayStation State of Play back in February of this year, only to debut a Death Stranding 2 trailer during a panel at South By Southwest, so clearly, publishers are happy to let him drop trailers when he'd like to.

Hideo Kojima says he makes games because an HR person told him to be creative after he decided job-hunting is "a place where lies meet lies": "I was a Showa era detective trying to solve a murder case."