CTO of Kojima Productions, Akio Sakamoto, believes that the generational jump from the PS4 to the PS5 has had less to do with the newer console’s raw horsepower and more to do with how much more efficient its hardware has been. He spoke about this in a recent interview with Edge magazine (via GamesRadar), where he said that the PS5 has more efficient ways of achieving what developers might want.
This doesn’t mean the extra horsepower in the PS5 over its predecessor isn’t useful, however. Sakamoto also spoke about how the quicker loading times has also been great for developers, as well as the efficiency and extra horsepower allowing artists to go even grander with their vision for games.
“The most obvious improvement from a technological point of view is the reduction in loading times, but to be honest, the difference between the two hardware systems isn’t so great,” explained Sakamoto. “It’s more a case that on PS5 there are more efficient ways of arriving at similar goals.”
“Having said that, our artists are less restrained to create the world, without having to come up with level workarounds. But of course this freedom has had knock-on effects, and technical challenges for the programmers. In some ways, it’s created an environment where the artists are now out of control.”
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is currently slowly inching towards its June 26 release date. The game is being exclusively developed for the PS5. However, considering the previous game in the franchise, we might end up seeing Death Stranding 2 come to PC as well in the longer term.
In the same interview with Edge, director Hideo Kojima spoke about how the themes of the Death Stranding games go in the opposite direction from the themes from Metal Gear games stemming from the loss of his own father at a young age. He explained that, while Metal Gear games had some themes about parenthood, in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, the player assumes the role of a father.
“The loss of my father was a major theme in the Metal Gear series,” Kojima explained. “Those games explore the theme of how you surpass your parents. Death Stranding looks in the other direction: you assume the parent’s perspective, looking toward the child.”
Kojima also spoke about how the themes of fatherhood will present an interesting challenge in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach because players won’t exactly be familiar with who Lou is.
“You think you know everything about your son, but there are some things that you don’t,” Kojima explained. “In the first Death Stranding, Sam travels together with Lou, but he doesn’t interrogate who Lou is very much. In the sequel, that has changed. It’s like how an adoptive parent might not know everything about their child. They might have questions. That’s the emotion I wanted to elicit.”
He has also spoken about how the action sequences in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach can be compared to the jump from horror to action that classic sci-fi movie franchise Alien made.