PlayStation Dashes Hopes for Death Stranding 2 Release in Early 2025

If you were hoping that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach would launch in the early months of 2025, you might want to now dash those hopes. In the game's latest trailer that was shown at PlayStation's State of Play event, the Death Stranding sequel was finally confirmed to be arriving next year. A more well-defined window within 2025 wasn't shared by Kojima Productions, but naturally, fans began crossing their fingers and praying for a release in the earlier part of the year. Now, based on a new statement from PlayStation, it doesn't seem like this will be coming to pass. 

Shared in new financial documents from Sony today, it was said that PlayStation doesn't plan to release new "major franchise titles" in the company's upcoming fiscal year. This period will run from the start of April 1, 2024, and will end on March 31, 2025. Given that Death Stranding 2 would definitely be a new game that is part of a "major franchise" from PlayStation, this all but confirms that the game won't be launching between January and March of next year. Instead, the latest game from Kojima Productions can now safely be anticipated between April 2025 and December 2025. 

With the original Death Stranding, PlayStation and Kojima Productions didn't release the game until November 2019. As such, Sony has shown a propensity in the past to release Death Stranding alongside the other biggest titles of the year in this fall window. It's not known if this will once again be happening with the sequel, but the likelihood is very much starting to seem in play with the first half of 2025 now seeming less feasible. 

Beyond Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Kojima Productions is known to be working on two additional projects. The first, titled OD, is a new collaboration with Xbox Game Studios. Specifics on the game are slim for the time being, but famed director Jordan Peele is known to be playing a part in its development. Phsyint is then the second title that Kojima Productions is working on and will mark a return to the "action espionage" genre for Hideo Kojima. Work on Physint is said to still be incredibly early and won't be beginning in full until Death Stranding 2 is released.