Death Stranding Will “Try To Move The Medium Forward”

Hideo Kojima has never been one to be beholden to industry conventions, and rather than sticking to established formula, usually attempts new things in either gameplay or storytelling with each of his new games. With Death Stranding, his first game since leaving Konami in 2015, it’s looking like he’s doubling down on that philosophy, with claims that the game pretty much belongs to a completely new genre of action games.

According to actor Troy Baker, who plays the mysterious and antagonistic character Higgs in the upcoming game, that’s very much the case. Speaking in an interview with Push Square, Baker said that Kojima is making a statement with Death Stranding, echoing similar statements by himself not too long ago, and that it’s a game that will try to “move the medium forward.”

“It’ll definitely be a statement,” he said. “If you know anything about Kojima, he doesn’t make ‘games’. He’s an amazing world builder. He’s trying to move the medium forward, not just trying to move copies.”

Where moving copies is concerned, though, as per Baker, it’ll be the fact that Kojima’s name is attached to the game that’ll drive its sales first and foremost instead of its ridiculously star-studded cast, which includes the likes of Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Lea Seydoux, Lindsay Wagner, and many, many more.

“This will be a game that names sell, and it won’t be Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen, and it sure as sh*t won’t be Troy Baker,” he said. “The name that’s going to sell this game is going to be Kojima.”

Troy Baker is far from the only actor involved with the game who has been this emphatic about what Kojima is trying to do with the project. Not too long ago, Tommie Earl Jenkins, who plays Die-Hardman in the game, said similarly positive things about it. Read more on that through here.

Death Stranding is due out exclusively for the PS4 on November 8.