Death Stranding – Hideo Kojima Tries Explaining What “Social Strand System” Means

Since the day Death Stranding was first announced, Hideo Kojima has insisted that it’s a new style of action game in a genre all of its own. It’s a genre that he’s taken to calling “Social Strand System” or “Strand Game”, but owing to the complete lack of information on any gameplay details from the game, none of us really have much of a clue about what that even means.

Recently, Kojima took to Twitter to try an explain just that. He explained that it’s not a stealth game, and though you can play some sections in first person (as we’ve seen in the last couple of trailers), it’s not a first person shooter either (which we knew, of course). According to Kojima, it’s a “brand new game genre that adapted the concept of strand”.

In a subsequent tweet, Kojima likens his naming of Death Stranding’s genre to how he coined “Tactical Espionage Action” for Metal Gear, which the wider audiences then took to calling a stealth game.

So long story short, we still don’t know what Social Strand Game means.

We’ll find out when Death Stranding launches on November 8 for the PS4. Recently, some crucial narrative details were revealed in a Gamescom-exclusive trailer. You can find those details through here.

Since I get this question alot, DEATH STRANDING is different from stealth game. You can enjoy First Person View but not a First Person Shooter game. It's brand new game genre that adapted the concept of strand that we call Action Game, Strand Game (Social Strand System). pic.twitter.com/W1oWfvO7B5

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) August 27, 2019

I knew that the name of new genre shouldn't be made from the creator but it should come with it later on, but forgive me I just like to name it. It's like I named Tactical Espionage Action for MG before categorizing into Stealth game, I named Social Strand System for DS.👍 pic.twitter.com/8TBqBc8uN6

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) August 27, 2019