After the messy breakup with Konami, Hideo Kojima allied with Sony to produce Death Stranding, a game that left most players divided in terms of what they thought of it. Some praised its ambitiousness while others found the experience a bit tedious and boring. Based on new speculation, it also appears that Sony was also left a bit disappointed as well.
The information comes from a a moderator on the Resetera forums called Dusk Golem, who makes it clear that this information comes from things they've heard and doesn't come from a source that can be verified. As such, fans should take this information with a grain of salt for the time being. However, there are a few facts that mange to line up with at least some of the new Death Stranding speculation.
According to his source, Death Stranding was a disappointment to Sony as sales came to an abrupt halt after its initial launch window and hasn't reached many of the milestones they were hoping for. In fact, there are still more than 3 million copies sitting in warehouses. It's no secret that the game was fairly divisive in the community and it seems like a big reason for that is how troubled the development period was. The original plan was for a darker and scarier game, though development was soft rebooted and subsequently rushed with only about a year and a half left before launch.
The source also went on to claim that Sony and Kojima Productions had numerous disagreements during the development period and that other Sony studios weren't keen on the budget that was being spent on Death Stranding as a whole. As such, this is a big reason why the game wasn't ultimately transitioned to a PlayStation 5 game, even after the rebooted development.
To offset this, the source goes on to say that Sony is working out a deal with Konami to fund the development of a new Silent Hill game with Kojima Productions as the lead developer. The thought process here is that developing a lower-budget horror game based on a well known and established franchise with Kojima's name attached to it should bring a good return on investment as well as being a strong title for the PlayStation brand. Oddly enough, the source also mentioned Keiichiro Toyama and Team Silent, who would be put to work on another project based on the Silent Hill franchise.
Again, it's impossible to corroborate any of this information, so fans should take it with a grain of salt. However, in terms of sales, it remains a bit curious that Death Stranding is a game that Sony never really shared any milestones for like it typically does with major exclusives like Marvel's Spider-Man, Horizon: Zero Dawn, or God of War. Chart watchers also likely noticed that Death Stranding never had much staying power on the US and UK sales charts following its release, which could lend a bit more evidence into the lackluster sales mentioned by the source above. This week also saw the game drop to itswho lowest price ever at places like Amazon and Walmart, perhaps in an effort to reduce warehouse inventory.
Regardless, it's clear Kojima isn't quite done with the franchise as a new rumor has been recently making the rounds that something new is coming to the IP, with many pointing to a manga. PC players will also get their chance to reunite the fictional United Cities landscape when Death Standing arrives on Steam in June.
Death Stranding is available now on PS4 and will launch to the PC on June 2, 2020.
Source: GameWorldObserver (via Resetera)