Death Stranding Director's Cut name questioned by director Hideo Kojima

Death Stranding
(Image credit: Kojima Productions)

Hideo Kojima has revealed a big fan of the "director's cut" name for Death Stranding's re-release.

In two tweets earlier today on July 12, the Death Stranding director and writer outlined his thoughts on the subtitle being used for the Death Stranding Director's Cut re-release later this year. Kojima explains that the phrase "director's cut" implies that content was left out of the original release, which isn't the case with Death Stranding, hence why he's not a fan of the official name.

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It's a bit of a strange turn of events from Kojima, but he has got a point. Director's Cut is a subtitle usually used when a film is re-released to be closer to the director's original vision, with a recent example being Zack Snyder's Justice League.  

It would appear that isn't true for Death Stranding. All the new content we've seen arriving with Death Stranding Director's Cut has been developed and implemented post-launch for the game, and Kojima has never said a word about being unhappy with the final version of the game itself. Therefore, it's entirely fair of Kojima to question the "director's cut" moniker being applied to the new version of Death Stranding.

Nonetheless, the Death Stranding re-release is an exciting prospect. Currently slated for launch later this year on September 24, the new version of the 2019 action-adventure game has a slew of brand new content, including story missions, weapons, transportation items including a robot that carries your cargo alongside you, and more. There's even a new racing mini-game that sees the player racing around the map in a car as quickly as possible, and a new performance mode that boosts the game up to a stable 60 frames per second.

However, this new version of the game won't be free for anyone who owns the existing version on PS4. To upgrade to the brand new, PS5 version of Death Stranding, you'll need to shell out $10 to get access to all the aforementioned brand new content. This comes at a slightly higher cost than the upgrade path for Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, which will cost existing users $30 to upgrade to the new PS5 version of the game.

For a full slate of all the other PlayStation exclusives on the next-gen console, head over to our upcoming PS5 games guide for more.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.