Death Stranding – Hideo Kojima Says He Needs to Create More “Strand Games” To Establish the Genre

Kojima feels one game won't be enough to establish "Strand" as a new genre.

Hideo Kojima’s claims that Death Stranding belongs to a completely new genre of games – which he calls the Strand game – have become widely known and publicized by now, and whether or not the game lives up to that billing is something we’ll be finding out not long from now. But according to Kojima, the upcoming open world title isn’t going to be enough to properly establish “Strand” as a new genre.

Not too long ago, Kojima said that if he were to properly establish this new genre he’s attempting to create with Death Stranding, he would have to look into making sequels, because only with multiple games following the same design philosophy would he be able to create enough awareness about this new style of game. And recently, while speaking at the 2019 Cologne Film Festival live panel (via MP1st), he suggested the same thing.

“I want to relay the new game feeling to the user,” Kojima said. “Previously it was the stealth genre, but this time I just kind of call it the Strand genre. And if I want to establish a real genre, I feel that I need to create more games to make the genre a genre.”

So does this mean we can look forward to Death Stranding 2 on the PS5? Who knows.

What we do know is that Death Stranding itself is not far away from release, and will be out on PS4 on November 8. A week before that, on November 1, the game’s reviews will begin going live. Meanwhile, a launch trailer for the game is also forthcoming, so keep an eye out for that.

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