Death Stranding 2 Is Coming Out Sooner Than Hideo Kojima Wanted

Hideo Kojima isn’t getting nearly as much time as he would like to make Death Stranding 2. The process of making a video game is quite hard and unpredictable. Although game developers do their best to lay out a roadmap that gets the game to the finish line, it’s an ever-evolving process. Unlike a movie which has a script and is shot in a couple of months before being edited for release, a video game is constantly changing. Developers are crafting the story as they go, finding what’s fun and what’s not, creating the world, and of course, making sure it actually works and isn’t a glitchy mess.

This is a big reason why GTA 6 was delayed. Rockstar Games is known not only for perfection, but also for crafting huge open worlds which means there’s a ton of room for bugs and technical issues that could ruin the game. However, Rockstar Games claimed the release window of 2025 for a year and a half and “Fall 2025” for a full year, causing a lot of fear for other game developers about when they could release their game. There’s really nothing bigger than Grand Theft Auto and as a result, no one wants to release next to it. So, a lot of developers have had to wait and see if GTA 6 would delay itself, but it also made a lot of other studios pick a date before that happened.

Death Stranding 2‘s Release Date Tried to Avoid GTA 6

One such team that got ahead of the big news was Kojima Productions. Death Stranding 2 is releasing in June and is arguably the biggest game releasing this summer. However, that wasn’t when Kojima wanted. According to Hideo Kojima (per a quote translated by @Genki_JPN on Twitter), he wanted to release the game in September, but noted that developers have to be strategic with releases so they don’t get too close to competition, like GTA 6.

“For example some are saying GTA may or may not release in November,” said Kojima. “As soon as it would be announced for November, everyone would move out of they way. For instance, if a new Mission Impossible movie were to release in May, others wouldn’t be able to compete with that so would move somewhere else.”

Of course, Death Stranding 2 could probably be delayed without too much headaches now if it was needed. However, it seems likely that it will probably hold its date. PlayStation has put Marathon in September and Ghost of Yotei in October, so it’s likely that they want enough space between all of its games for the rest of the year. Not to mention, having a game that looks as good as Death Stranding 2 to dominate the summer would be huge. Either way, it’s interesting to hear that even a legendary game developer fears a juggernaut like GTA 6.