Fans are speculating what is next for Hideo Kojima and his game development studio Kojima Productions following the release of Death Stranding. Though the game initially got very mixed reviews, Death Stranding was a big success on PC, receiving markedly better reviews from across the industry as well as PC players.

Recently, fans got in quite the stir after they spotted a Ludens figure on a bookshelf behind Phil Spencer, the Head of Gaming over at Xbox. Now, industry insider and reporter at Venture Beat, Jeff Grubb, says that this tease is "probably significant," meaning that fans may see some collaboration between Xbox and Kojima sometime in the future, despite Death Stranding's initial PlayStation exclusivity.

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Many readers out there naturally associate Kojima with PlayStation, considering Death Stranding was a PS4 exclusive title for quite some time before it came to PC later on. Additionally, Kojima is Japanese game developer, so it makes sense that he would feel more at home in the PlayStation ecosystem. However, fans began to question whether or not Kojima would maintain that alignment with Sony following a potential tease from Phil Spencer. Now, VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb has discussed the tease, calling it "significant," along with the other video-game related material on Spencer's shelf.

For those who may not have seen the alleged tease, Spencer sported a Ludens figurine on the shelf behind him during Microsoft's Gaming Summit event, leading many to speculate if it could mean anything. Grubb seems to think it does mean something, saying, "I don't think Phil's trying to be too coy anymore. He knows what people do when they look at a shelf, and he's doing it deliberately." Grubb is probably referring to when Spencer hid an Xbox Series S on his shelf in plain view months before the console was officially revealed to the public.

Ludens Kojima Productions Mascot Xbox Logo

However, Grubb does make a point to clarify that he doesn't believe any deals between Xbox and Kojima Productions have been set in stone just yet. "I don't think they've like, inked any deals necessarily with most of the stuff suggested by that shelf, but I think it's stuff that he's looking into more and making stuff happen." Of course, this claim is unconfirmed by both Xbox and Kojima so there's the very real possibility that no such collaboration comes to fruition. Kojima is known for collaborating with different developers for cameos and the like, so anything is possible when it comes to the prolific game developer.

It goes without saying, but it would be a very big deal if Microsoft and Xbox were collaborating with Kojima Productions in some substantial way. Even if it was just Death Stranding coming to Xbox One or Xbox Series X, that would be a pretty big pull for Xbox. Additionally, Kojima has teased his next project, so there's also the possibility that this next game could come to Xbox and PC at launch, instead of just PlayStation. Until an official announcement is made, fans will have to hope that Spencer's Ludens statue actually is a tease for something more.

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Source: Pure Xbox