There’s no doubt that Sony and Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding is one of the industry’s most highly-anticipated upcoming releases. The only problem is that we still have no idea when we’ll be able to play it on our own PS4 consoles at home. Well, in a new message from the game’s director Hideo Kojima, it seems like he could be teasing something related to the title for next year, although it’s hard to be certain what his words could mean.

In the year’s final issue of the Japanese gaming publication Famitsu, Kojima shared a short year-end message related to Death Stranding. Not only did Kojima implore fans to be excited about the game, but he also prompted a rather intriguing question related to whales.

Kojima’s brief statement in the magazine simply said the following:

“Is 2019 the year of the Whale? Please look forward to Death Stranding!”

For those unaware with what Kojima could be referring to with this inquiry, the whale is something that has long had ties to both Death Stranding and Kojima’s past work. Whales have been seen in Death Stranding since the game’s original reveal trailer back at E3 2016 where we could see a litany of the beached creatures. In the Kojima Productions logo video, we also see another whale that is crashing upon the moon behind the company’s figurehead Ludens. Even prior to Death Stranding, Kojima once pretended to found a fake development company called Moby Dick Studios when announcing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain which obviously had more direct ties to whales.

So knowing this, what should we glean from Kojima’s message? Well, it’s hard to say. Kojima has long been known to toy with fans (the aforementioned Moby Dick Studios scenario) so it’s difficult to know if he’s actually teasing that Death Stranding could be released next year or if this is just another in a long line of messages meant to play with fan expectations.

In my own opinion, a 2019 release for Death Stranding doesn’t seem to be entirely out of the question, but I also don’t expect it to arrive next calendar year. This window just seems far too early given when Death Stranding’s development started. As of now, we know that the team is still actively working on voice recording and motion capture.

Plus, there are still so many questions surrounding the project and we have yet to even see live gameplay footage. Unless Death Stranding is far smaller in scope than many might initially expect, 2019 just still seems to early to get our hands on Kojima’s next project — although I’d love to be wrong.

Regardless of when Death Stranding releases, it’ll be arriving exclusively on the PS4. Hopefully, 2019 can at the very least provide us with more information on the mysterious title, even if it doesn’t end up launching in the year.

Posted: Dec 28, 2018 7:12 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/death-stranding-2019-release-date-tease/