Kojima began writing the game's sequel some time prior to 2020, but reworked his narrative from scratch to reflect the impact of COVID-19 on the worldwide population. After the story was completed, hints of Death Stranding launching a new franchise for Kojima Productions had been insinuated, before the sequel game was confirmed as in development by Reedus in May 2022. The game was officially announced in December 2022 alongside the confirmation of the new cast members' respective involvements.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is scheduled to release for the PlayStation 5 in 2025.
Development and marketing
In March 2020, Norman Reedus, who played the game's main playable protagonist Sam Porter Bridges, alluded to the possibility of continued collaboration with Hideo Kojima, who wrote, directed, produced and primarily designed the game for more content related to Death Stranding.[2]
The sequel game was revealed to be in development in May 2022, when Reedus participated in an interview with the outlet Leo Edit to discuss his work on the game. In response, Kojima would post a series of photos on Twitter, cheekily depicting him punishing Reedus for confirming the game's existence.[3] In October, following a series of teases made by Kojima on social media, Elle Fanning was announced to join the cast for an upcoming Kojima Productions game.[4][5]
Kojima unveiled the game at The Game Awards 2022. He shared that he had written the game's original story sometime prior to 2020, but decided to rework the narrative when faced with new story concepts that reflected the impact of COVID-19 on the rest of the world.[6] The trailer additionally confirmed that Léa Seydoux and Troy Baker would reprise their roles as Fragile and Higgs from the first game, and that Fanning would appear in an undisclosed role. Shioli Kutsuna was also announced to have joined the cast.[7][8] Artist and mechanical designer Yoji Shinkawa and composer Ludvig Forsell were also confirmed to reprise their respective duties from the first game.
On December 31, 2023, Kojima explained that the game is in development with ADR work, with Japanese audio dialogue scheduled to be recorded soon.[9]
During the January 2024 PlayStation State of Play, Kojima revealed in a 10-minute trailer new information about the game such as Fanning's character, special appearances by (George Miller/Marty Rhone),[b] and (Fatih Akin/Jonathan Roumie),[c] and new gameplay.[10] Filming and motion capture were completed by May 2024, with Kojima adding that the game was in an "adjustment phase" that will take about a year to complete.[11]
During a presentation on September 29's Tokyo Game Show, Kojima revealed a new photo mode called "Photo Shoot Event". He also revealed names and Japanese voice actors for some characters, such as George Miller's Tarman, Fatih Akin's Dollman, Elle Fanning's Tomorrow and Shioli Kutsuna's Rainy. Also revealed was an in-game performance by Daichi Miura.[12]
Release
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is scheduled to release for the PlayStation 5 in 2025.[13] The game was nominated for Most Anticipated Game at the Game Awards in November 2024.[14]
