In a surprise celebration of the game’s fifth anniversary, Kojima Productions and 505 Games have just dropped Death Stranding Director’s Cut onto Xbox Series X|S and Amazon Luna.
Having originally launched as a PlayStation 4 exclusive published by Sony, and with the sequel set to be similarly PlayStation 5 exclusive, Hideo Kojima’s genre-bending game is now on Xbox. The studio has also confirmed that they now have full ownership of the Death Stranding IP.
Hideo Kojima said, “It is my pleasure to finally announce that Death Stranding Director’s Cut will be delivered to Xbox players. I would like to thank all the fans who have stayed connected with us as well as everyone in the Xbox community who have been patiently waiting. Kojima Productions will continue to connect more and more players around the world, so please stay tuned.”
The production of Death Stranding seems to have been about as unique and individual as Kojima’s career as a gaming auteur. Having been given the boot by Konami following the release of Metal Gear Solid V, Kojima founded his own game studio, doing so with the backing of a very enthusiastic Andrew House and Sony, who secured the company’s next game as an exclusive – this turned out to be Death Stranding in 2019 – and helped them get access to Guerrilla Games’ Decima engine.
However, it seems there was a good bit of wiggle room in that publishing partnership. While Sony had exclusive console rights, Kojima was also able to sign with 505 Games to publish the game on PC in mid-2020. Come 2021, the PS5 enhanced Director’s Cut launched and was then similarly followed on for PC, and they took a further opportunity to bring the game to Mac, iPad and iPhone in early 2024.
Now, it seems that the publishing deal was for five years with the IP rights reverting back to Kojima after that time. In porting the game across to Xbox, we’re now in a curious place where the excellent Decima engine is now on Xbox as well.
So, what does this mean for Death Stranding 2? Well, likely a similar situation to the first game. Death Stranding 2 is being published by Sony, which means that there will at the very least be console exclusivity for a good few years after launch. It remains to be seen whether 505 will be involved again and help bring the game to PC and other platforms down the line.
