Insider Dusk Golem has shared new behind the scene details about the development of Death Stranding, which has reportedly seen Sony and Kojima Productions having “some disagreements” involving how work was handled on the project.
Dusk Golem is the same source that has revealed particulars about PlayStation being in talks with Konami about a Silent Hill game from the creator of Siren and a revival of the canceled Silent Hills’ P.T. concept demo, which would be assigned once again to Hideo Kojima.
According to the details revealed by the insider, we learn that “Death Stranding was a flop” as “it sold well initially, but (…) has over 3 million unsold copies of what’s been produced.” Overall, the game is said not to have performed as well as everyone involved was expecting.
The game also got reportedly “soft rebooted” as it was initially “very different,” “a lot darker and more horror-esque.” The reboot happened “a year and a half before launch” last November, and lead “Sony and Kojima” to have “some disagreements.”
Some of those “disagreements” are reportedly due to the timeline adopted by Kojima for the release, which led the title “not ending up as a PS5 game” as, we deduce, Sony might have been willing to do.
Despite being publicly acclaimed by internal teams at PlayStation, Dusk Golem reports that “some other studios at Sony’s Worldwide Studios were a bit upset at the money Kojima was getting” for the project.
The idea of having Kojima involved on the Silent Hill IP would also be partly due to Death Stranding‘s commercial disappointment, as Sony would want the Japanese designer and director involved in “a smaller budget game (…) which they believe would have interest for gamers.”
“They believe that a horror game or even a Silent Hill game as a brand with recognition and already pre-built hype with his named attached might make more financial return for them,” the insider added.
Death Stranding has not ended its journey, as it is releasing on PC on June 2, complete with special in-game items crafted after the Half-Life franchise.
Due to the peculiar nature of the title, not the typical action-adventure game that has performed so well across this generation on PS4, there’s a chance that it gets a higher recognition on that platform when it releases this summer.
