Death Stranding, the upcoming game from veteran game designer Hideo Kojima, is one of the most hotly anticipated games announced for PS4. As some would argue, the confusing trailers released thus far have only made fans want it more, and they are eager to know when the release date is. Fans may not have long to wait for a release date announcement if some speculation is to be believed.

Last week, Kojima shared images from a meeting between himself and several Sony games marketing executives. In one Twitter photo set, the veteran game developer can be seen smiling and looking friendly "with Asad and Craig of Sony's marketing team." While it's unclear what Craig's title is, Asad is Asad Qizilbash, the vice president of marketing for PlayStation exclusive games.

David Bull, the global brand marketing boss at PlayStation, also met up with Kojima. Images also show that all of the Sony marketing executives (Bull, Craig, and Qizilbash) met with Aki Saito, who is the head of marketing and communications at Kojima Productions. Bull's tweet also stated that they will be working together for the next two weeks, also calling the interactions so far an "inspiring and eye-opening experience."

While nothing has been confirmed, many fans are speculating that a Death Stranding release date announcement is coming soon. The marketing executives may just be preparing a new trailer, but it seems unlikely that so many people would be involved in something of such a small magnitude.

Kojima has also teased a release date announcement several times, suggesting that 2019 could be the year of the whale, an animal which has featured heavily in Death Stranding marketing. Kojima previously said that the game would be released before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which take place next summer, so the dates would line up.

What pours water on fans' speculation, however, is that Kojima has revealed that Death Stranding's development is a bit behind schedule. That doesn't mean that the game won't make whatever internal release date targets that have been set for it, but it may mean that Kojima isn't yet ready to announce a launch date.

Some will also want to know where this release date announcement may happen. Sony isn't hosting an E3 2019 press conference, which means that the Death Stranding release date will either be out of the blue or take place at a non-E3 event. Either way, thousands of fans will be excited to learn when they can finally play the game.

Death Stranding is currently in development for PlayStation 4.

Source: Twitter (1), (2), (3)