Hideo Kojima's next major project, Death Stranding, is almost available, and it is currently dominating headlines. As such, it's no surprise that companies might wish to use the game to help promote their own products, and the latest Death Stranding gameplay demo from the Tokyo Game Show (which was roughly 50 minutes long) showed a rather bizarre example of this.
During the demo, main protagonist Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus) swims against a strong current, which wears him out and depletes his energy. To fill it back up, he takes a swig from his canteen, which contains Monster Energy drink, as stated by the notification that pops up immediately afterwards. It looks like the recognizable Monster cans don't appear in Death Stranding (as far as has been shown thus far), possibly to avoid the potential of ruining some players' immersion.
It's most certainly not just a coincidence either, as the official Monster Energy Japan Twitter account posted a tweet that reads: "In-game collaboration with “DEATH STRANDING” is decided. Monster energy appears in the game as a stamina recovery item!” Fans can probably expect to see Death Stranding-themed cans around the time of the game's release, though it's not currently known if such a promotion will be exclusive to Japan.
This isn't even the only bit of cross-promotion in the game. It was also revealed recently that the glasses worn by the main characters are the result of a collaboration with eye-wear brand J.F. Rey, with real versions of these glasses planned to be made available for purchase.
While waiting to engage with the game's cross-promotion directly, fans can enjoy a new seven minute-long Death Stranding trailer that's completely dedicated to the story and provides further explanations about the world and what exactly the player's objective is. It acts as an extended cutscene, and it could possibly be from the final game.
All this new info comes from the Tokyo Game Show, and it feels like fans are now getting a real demonstration of Death Stranding. The new demo even finally explains how Death Stranding's multiplayer mechanics will work. With the game getting closer to release, it seems Kojima and his team are really pushing to entice skeptics that were put off by the rather vague advertising that's been presented for the last couple of years.
Death Stranding will release on PS4 on November 8th.
Source: GameRevolution