At Sony’s E3 press conference this yer, Hideo Kojima revealed Death Stranding, his brand new IP that he is currently working on with his newly reformed Kojima Productions, and with Sony. The debut trailer for the game was typical Kojima, cryptic, full of symbolism and imagery, and raising more questions than it answered.
And since it’s a Kojima game, and most of his fans are used to the routine by now, there have been a lot of fan theories, based mostly on the dissection of what was shown in the trailer- and in a recent interview with Eurogamer, Kojima took on some of those, addressing them where he could and teasing where he could not. After discussing the game’s trailer, as well as musing on its early stages of development, Kojima took on some fan theories head on.
For instance, talking about the equations on the tag on Reedus’ character’s neck, which many ave speculated could point to the existence of a black hole, Kojima said, “What I will say is, I wanted people to find those…’’
That’s pretty sly. He was, however, less sly when it came to tackling the theory of whether the baby in the trailer might be linked to Reedus’ character somehow- possibly he is his clone? “I read that one!” he said. “That one is off.”
Alright, fair enough. What, then, about the connections that some fans have speculatively drawn between the trailer and Kojima’s own departure from Konami? Kojima was surprisingly candid about this one.
“Part of the trailer is based on the song ‘I’ll Keep Coming’ [by Icelandic band Low Roar]. I will keep coming; Norman Reedus and [long-time design collaborator] Kyle Cooper will keep coming back; waves are a big theme. As for Konami? I thought people might link it but there’s no connection in there,” added Kojima.
Well, good on Kojima for taking on these questions, though I suspect his answers will only fuel more speculation. Death Stranding is due out on PS4, with a PC version planned for later.