Hideo Kojima had to rewrite Death Stranding 2 due to the pandemic

Death Stranding 2 was revealed this week, and according to Hideo Kojima himself, the game was rewritten due to the pandemic.

When the first Death Stranding launched in 2019, some thought that the enemies you occasionally faced obsessed with stealing packages from one of the few remaining delivery drivers in a post-apocalyptic America was a bit over the top. Then a pandemic hit in 2020, retroactively making the game an incredibly prescient one. So despite Kojima having had the story written prior to the pandemic, he had to completely change it once he experienced it.

“I had the story written before the pandemic, but after experiencing the pandemic, I rewrote the whole thing from scratch,” Kojima told The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley following the reveal of Death Stranding 2. “I also didn’t want to predict any more future, so I rewrote it.”

Death Stranding isn’t the only time Kojima has seemingly accidentally predicted the future. Fans have previously noted how Metal Gear Solid 2 somewhat covered the ways in which misinformation can spread on the internet, before it was as big of a problem as it is now.

That was the majority of what Kojima had to say on the game though, as he’s keeping pretty tight-lipped about it for now. Talking about the trailer, Kojima did note that he “put a lot of things inside so I want you guys to talk about it and find details in it,” which I’m sure many eagle-eyed viewers will have done in the days since the game was revealed.

Death Stranding 2 follows on from the original game, with what looks to be an older Sam Bridges (Norman Reedus) and a scruffier-haired Fragile (Lea Seydoux). There’s also octopus babies, mechs, and giant floating sculptures, all of which feels pretty standard for a Hideo Kojima game.