'Death Stranding's PS4 Release Will "Take A While"

Recent reports, rumors, and leaks have all suggested that Hideo Kojima's upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive, Death Stranding, will release sometime this year. However, a new tweet from Kojima himself seems to suggest otherwise.

Recently, Kojima took to social media to promote Mads Mikkelsen (who plays a prominent role in Death Stranding) and his latest film, Arctic, which has been receiving high praise and cultivating some excitement.

In the process of doing this, Joe Penna, the director of the film, tweeted at Kojima in a rather ludic fashion, asking if this means we'll finally be able to play the highly-anticipated game Kojima has been working on since he left Konami and the Metal Gear Solid series behind.

In response, Kojima dealt a potentially crushing blow to anyone who previously believed the game would arrive this year.

It’ll take a while, but meanwhile I hope everyone enjoys the film😇 //t.co/kqdji4IYVg

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) January 25, 2019

Now, it's possible Kojima is trying to erode away at the rising expectations that the game will launch this year in order to surprise people later down the road, or simply because he isn't sure if the game will be shipping this year and doesn't want to get everyone's hopes up that it will. Or it's quite possible Kojima knows it's not releasing this year, and rather than let everyone think it is, this is him slyly hinting to everybody it's a 2020 game.

Or, maybe Kojima's definition of "a while," isn't the same as mine. When I hear "a while," I assume the earliest we will see this game is this fall. Previous speculation pointed to the game releasing in the first half of 2019, but that seems dubious following this tweet.

Lastly, it's possible Kojima -- a master of pre-release build-up, teasing, and cryptic messages -- is just doing what he has always done: leave fans completely in the dark about what the heck is going on with his game. Alas, who knows. One week I'm convinced the game is releasing this spring or summer. And the next week I'm not even sure if it will come this year.

Death Stranding is in development exclusively for PlayStation 4. Being a first-party Sony game, there's no chance it will come to other platforms.

For more on the highly-anticipated title, be sure to check out our previous coverage of it by clicking right here.