Death Stranding has launched and is already the target of controversies, from the early "walking simulator" comments, to the recent accusations of gamers review bombing the game on Metacritic. However, it looks like Hideo Kojima's newest title is at least free of one controversy that has plagued a number of games as they release on PC to a hail of negativity online.
While Death Stranding was originally announced as a PS4 exclusive, it was recently announced that it would be released later on PC through 505 Studios. In a post to Death Stranding's Steam page, the game's community management made the claim that when the title arrives to PC, it will publish on both Steam and the Epic Games Store simultaneously.
When news of Death Stranding's PC released first dropped, rumors of it being an Epic Games Store exclusive quickly began circling. This had a lot of PC fans worried that Epic Games' aggressive tactics for securing time exclusivity for new games would be extending to the latest title from Kojima Productions. However, soon after being placed in charge of publishing Death Stranding on PC, 505 Studios quickly affirmed that there won't be any exclusivity deals for any online store.
When games in the past have arrived exclusively to the Epic Games Store, whether temporarily or permanently, they have often been immediately met with ridicule. This has sometimes led to developers large and small meeting such extensive harassment that Epic stepped in to attempt to ease the burden on development teams looking to get the most out of the man-hours that goes into creating a game. Clearly attempting to avoid this negative press, 505's assertion that Death Stranding will be releasing simultaneously on both online stores is coming just in time to hold off even the early rumors.
The buildup to game's release on PS4 alone has been an excruciatingly long wait, shrouded in so much mystery that even the title 'Death Stranding' needs explaining. Given how much controversy has already surrounded the experimental title, it should come as no surprise that 505 and Kojima Productions are attempting to make the transition to PC as painless as possible. Considering that this is the first major release from the Kojima Productions since cutting ties with Konami, the future of the company may hang on ensuring that both the PS4 and PC releases go as smoothly as possible.
Death Stranding is available now on PS4, with a PC release coming in Summer 2020.
Source: Steam Store (Via Eurogamer)