The way people talk about Death Stranding, it will be transformative, life and mind changing experience that transcends being a game. The hyperbole surrounding the game thanks to the kind of rhetoric that a new game by auteur developer Hideo Kojima generates aside, however, Death Stranding certainly looks to be an interesting game. And now, it just got a whole lot more interesting.
Kojima Productions, the developers of the game, have filed in Japan trademark applications for “Social Strand System” and “Strand Game”. The nomenclature, especially “Social Strand System”, seems to suggest that this references a multiplayer or social component of the game. Kojima has previously referenced multiplayer for Death Stranding—if these trademarks do refer to that, however, we learn nothing about what it might be like thanks to the mostly non-descriptive names. For now, all we can do is speculate, maybe looking to games like Dark Souls and Metal Gear Solid 5 to understand what kind of implementation Kojima might be going for here.
Death Stranding is due out exclusively on the PS4, allegedly some time this year.