Did Hideo Kojima Just Tease a New PlayStation State of Play?

Did famed video game director Hideo Kojima just accidentally tease that a new PlayStation State of Play event is right around the corner? Well, that's what a number of fans happen to think. Earlier in September, Sony held its latest State of Play which shared news on games like Resident Evil 4, Helldivers 2, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, to name a few. And although it's not known when the next State of Play could be happening, it seems like Kojima and his Kojima Productions studio could be taking part in the prospective event. 

In a recent image shared on social media, Hideo Kojima's personal assistant shared an image of the director as he looks to be in the process of editing a video. The video itself that Kojima was editing couldn't be seen in the picture, but some eagle-eyed users on Reddit happened to notice that the title of the edit could potentially be made out. Although the file name was quite blurry, Kojima seems to have labeled this video as "State_of_Play" when looking near the top of his computer monitor. Again, it's hard to know if this is certain given the blurred nature of the photo, but it definitely seems like Kojima could be editing a video associated with PlayStation's digital events. 

本日の小島監督。
Hideo Kojima today. pic.twitter.com/uFjnL1A0Cq

— Ayako (Touchy!) (@Kaizerkunkun) September 27, 2023

Assuming that this video Kojima was working on is meant to appear in a State of Play, it's likely that it's associated with Death Stranding 2. During The Game Awards at the end of 2022, Kojima formally announced Death Stranding 2 would be coming about as another collaboration with PlayStation. Since that time, though, no new information or footage on the project has emerged, which has left fans with many questions. If a new State of Play is set to transpire in the coming weeks or months, it looks like it could also provide us with our first new glimpse of Death Stranding 2 in roughly a year. 

When Is Death Stranding 2 Releasing?

At this point in time, there's essentially nothing that we know about Death Stranding 2 or when it could be releasing. When DS2 was originally unveiled at the end of 2022, it was simply confirmed to be in the works for PlayStation 5. Kojima also noted that he had the first story concept for Death Stranding 2 written before the pandemic began in 2020. However, after experiencing the pandemic, Kojima said that he re-wrote the entire game's narrative. 

Outside of simply being in development, Kojima has also confirmed many of the initial cast members that will be seen in the Death Stranding sequel. Notably, Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, and Troy Baker will all be returning from the original game while Elle Fanning, Shioli Kutsuna, and Kevin Ko will be joining the cast this time around. Filming for Death Stranding 2 has openly been taking place over the course of 2023, but it's not known just how close the project might be to completion.