A recent rumor has begun circulating that after disappointing Death Stranding sales last year, Sony may not end up funding Hideo Kojima’s next game. The rumor came from two different industry insiders, Dusk Golem and KatharsisT, though obviously nothing is actually officially confirmed yet, so take it with a grain of salt.
Death Stranding was originally announced at E3 2016, which also included Hideo Kojima’s triumphant return to video game development following his controversial firing by Konami. The subsequent years were marked by periodic Death Stranding trailers, each one leaving more questions than they answered.
Despite each trailer building more and more hype for the game, when Death Stranding came out in November of last year the game received a mixed reception due to its glacial plot and gameplay. While the game still hit high spots in many best-seller lists, it appears to have underperformed in Sony’s eyes.
We don’t know the exact sales figures for the game either, so Death Stranding sales might be better than these supposed insiders claim. If it is true, however, it would cause Kojima Productions to have to temper its expectations.
Another claim that the insiders made is that the next game that Kojima wanted to work on was a virtual reality horror game. However, that is also the same game Sony allegedly refused to fund, which may get the goat of multiple Kojima fans again.
Everyone knows that Hideo Kojima, along with Guillermo Del Toro, Norman Reedus, and acclaimed Japanese horror manga artist Junji Ito, were supposed to work on a new Silent Hill game. That game, however, was cancelled following Kojima and Konami’s falling out.
While every supposed insider claim should be taken with a grain of salt, considering Death Stranding’s divisive reception it wouldn’t really be surprising if Sony was disappointed in Death Stranding sales. Whether that means it won’t fund Kojima’s games in the future though remains to be seen.
