Islamabad, June 25, 2025: Japanese gaming icon Hideo Kojima is launching a highly anticipated PlayStation sequel this week, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, featuring an all-star cast and influenced by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Kojima described the continuation of the reflective 2019 title, where Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus portrayed a post-collapse courier Sam Porter Bridges, as centered on “connection.”
“The social situation was that everyone was divided,” Kojima explained the social situation of 2016 when he started working on the game, during the unveiling of the new chapter at Los Angeles’ Summer Game Fest on June 8. “I said, let’s get connected. Right after that, we had the pandemic, and my fiction became a little reality,” he noted, referencing the digital ways people stayed in touch.
Set to release Thursday, Death Stranding 2 expresses Kojima’s wish for society to return to face-to-face interaction after extended periods of solitude.
The first game blended hiking simulation with traditional combat mechanics. Set in a bleak, fantastical sci-fi setting, it featured elements like time-accelerating rainfall and fetus-like companions alerting characters of ghostly dangers. Reedus’s role involved linking isolated settlements across a ravaged America.
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This time, Bridges’s journey extends to Mexico and Australia, within a narrative Kojima, now 61, completely revamped after experiencing the pandemic. “I already had the DS2 idea but I had to scratch that off because I experienced the pandemic. So I rewrote,” he shared. ““It’s a new connection… I put that in the game system and I want everyone to experience that.”
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Returning with Reedus is French actress Lea Seydoux, known for No Time to Die and Inglourious Basterds. New faces include Elle Fanning and a digital representation of Mad Max filmmaker George Miller. The score was composed by French musician Woodkid.
Kojima Productions revealed in March that over 20 million players had tried the first installment. The franchise is expanding into film with A24 and an animated project. Kojima is also crafting OD, a horror game with Jordan Peele, and developing a spy-themed game titled PHYSINT.
