Death Stranding developer Hideo Kojima appears to throw some major shade at Fortnite and other battle royale games while doing a talk at San Diego Comic-Con. Kojima's new game will have multiplayer gameplay but the developer says that a battle royale game is not the sort of game that he would like to make.
Kojima did a panel at SDCC 2019 where he shared more information about Death Stranding, like the reveal that Hollywood star and Cyberpunk 2077 actor Keanu Reeves was nearly in the game. The Hollywood Reporter journalist Patrick Shanley said that Kojima also used the panel to have a dig at battle royale games, saying that "the easiest way to make money is to make a game where everyone is on an island trying to shoot each other."
It isn't a huge surprise that Kojima has what seems to be a disdain for battle royale games. The developer created a new game genre for Death Stranding, suggesting that he likes to push the boat out and make new game development ideas, and not rehash ideas that are making large amounts of money.
However, many of Kojima's fans were still happy to hear the game developer criticize the battle royale genre. Shanley wrote that a "big" round of applause followed Kojima's joke and many fans also gave their support on social media.
The Death Stranding developer isn't the only big games industry figure to stay away from battle royale games. When explaining why it hasn't made a battle royale game, Ubisoft said that there are 15 different game developers making games like that. If Ubisoft did make a battle royale game, then it wouldn't be to copy Fortnite but to do "something else" with the game genre that would be seen as "disruptive."
It's unclear if Kojima will revisit the idea of making a battle royale game, but it seems unlikely. Death Stranding will also have an anti-war sentiment and Kojima has said that the game will not force players to fight. It is possible to make a successful battle royale game that doesn't have firefights or war, with games like Devolver Digital's Fall Guys trying to do that. That isn't what's popular now though, meaning that Kojima probably won't be giving us his likely confusing take on battle royale games any time soon.
Death Stranding releases November 8, 2019 for PS4.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons - Georges Seguin with a Creative Commons license
Source: Twitter - Patrick Shanley