Hideo Kojima announced at his SXSW keynote talk that Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding 2 will debut on June 26, 2025 on PlayStation.
Sony also announced there will be a collector’s edition (at PlayStation.com, and preorders begin on March 17). Norman Reedus (who plays the lead character Sam in Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2) joined Kojima on stage.
Kojima also showed a nearly 10-minute trailer of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, with tons of cinematic scenes. In the early part of the panel session, Kojima said he released Death Stranding and then a few weeks later the pandemic started. The trailer showed a lot of scenes on the beach, where Death Stranding ends. There are strange giant black creatures with hands where they heads should be. There is a kiss between Sam and Fragile (played by Lea Seydoux), and talk about how death cannot separate them.
The little baby who is a constant companion for Sam in the first game is Lou. Lou is a toddler now and has to be protected by Fragile as soldiers attack her on the beach. And so Lou seems to be a pawn in a larger struggle. The environments are so surreal and creative. And you can see how much work Kojima, who edited the trailer, puts into building out the world of Death Stranding 2. You can also just see how crazy the mind of Hideo Kojima is.
Higgs, played by Troy Baker, is returning as a villain in the game. He was so popular that Kojima said he couldn’t kill him off and had to bring him back. Baker’s own face will appear in the game and he will be singing as well!
“I felt really bad,” Kojima said, as humanity is virtually wiped out by a pandemic in the game, which debuted November 8, 2019. He noted that the first game was all about the need for humans to be connected, as the pandemic had separated them. Sam was one of the important delivery people who took packages to people who were spread far apart.
Baker said he loved how much he enjoyed working with Reedus and said if you don’t get along off the screen and then you won’t have magic on the screen. Reedus called Kojima a genius and thanked him for putting him in the game.
But after the pandemic, Kojima had to rethink this as the pandemic spread germs from person to person and he had to think more about connection. The result is Death Stranding 2.
Kojima said Higgs will behave so strangely that you’ll reach the ending and probably throw the controller. Woodkid also came out on stage. His song was in the trailer. He said Kojima called him 2.5 years ago and asked him to come to Japan and write a song. He stayed for a couple of weeks, inspired by the lore of the game and the beautiful performances. Kojima loved it.
There will also be an orchestral show of the music of Death Stranding starting on November 8 in Sydney, Australia, and The Strands of Harmony tour will go around the world. There will also be a special black watch from the character The Hamilton on sale as the game comes out.
“It’s all about connection,” Kojima said. “And also the fans. They were connected with me. I was so happy. Death Stranding is about isolation and then we had the pandemic. Death Stranding 2 is like post COVID. I thought about the future.”
In the trailer, it’s noted that the United States, which preceded the government of Death Stranding, had a gun culture that spread to “this continent.” There’s also a lot more combat in the game. There are so many shooting scenes that it seems like the game is much more of a combat shooter. But there are still some crazy “only Kojima” moments like a little shoulder dummy character.
