If you've been following the gaming news cycle this week, then you're already well aware that we're expecting some pretty big news regarding Hideo Kojima's upcoming release of Death Stranding tomorrow on May 29. As of this moment, we don't really know what to expect (other than likely a new trailer) but whatever is in store seems to be much more prominent than what we've heard or seen of the game in the past. Kojima Productions, Sony, and Kojima himself are all really hyping this deluge of new information up quite a bit.While I sat around today thinking of what could possibly be arriving tomorrow for Death Stranding, an idea popped into my head that I since haven't been able to shake: what if we're getting a demo for the game tomorrow? Yes, I mean a demo that you'll be able to actively download and then play on your own PS4 at home. Does it sound downright crazy? Absolutely. But I also think it makes a lot of sense given a few different circumstances.Obviously, outrageous hypothesizing is nothing new when it comes to a Kojima game and Death Stranding might be the worst offender of all of the famed director's work when it comes to wild theories. Still, I think my demo idea could be spot on for a few different reasons and here's why.
Kojima's Most Recent Teaser Tweet Might be Literal
What got me started on this whole idea of a demo releasing for Death Stranding tomorrow in the first place came with Kojima's most recent tweet. This is the third time he has released a new teaser video this week for whatever May 29th's announcement is going to be, but the tagline in this video really stood out to me. The video that Kojima tweeted out contains the message "Tomorrow is in your hands" which could mean a multitude of things, but I took it quite literally.
Perhaps this is just another obscure tagline that somehow is related to Death Stranding seemingly like the phrases "Help us reconnect" and "Create the rope" were in earlier videos Kojima tweeted out this week. Or, maybe, tomorrow Death Stranding actually will be in our hands. Of course, there's no possible way that the full game would release tomorrow as it's still in development, but a demo being releasing would make more sense.
There's a Precedent for Demos with Kojima's Games
Death Stranding isn't Hideo Kojima's first rodeo and the director has shown multiple times in the past that he enjoys releasing demos to the general public before the full release of his games come about. This has been seen most recently with Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, the prologue episode of sorts to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Even before MGSV, Kojima also released a demo for Silent Hills, prior to the game being canceled, which was in the form of the now iconic and legendary PT.
Even further back, Metal Gear Solid 2 also had a memorable and sought-after demo which came in the form of a portion of the game's opening Tanker mission. This slice of MGS2 came packed in as a separate disc on copies of Zone of the Enders back in 2001 and at the time, was a pretty unconventional way of dolling out a sneak peek of an upcoming title.
While this past history doesn't necessarily affirm that the same will happen here with Death Stranding, all of these mentioned instances at the very least show that Kojima has toyed around with the idea of letting loose a pre-release demo.
Death Stranding's Idea of Interconnectivity Starts Here
If you've been following the development cycle of Death Stranding closely, you're probably aware of some of the larger themes that Kojima has talked about that are associated with the game. One of those themes that he has touched on time-and-time again has been that of everything being connected. Kojima has said that this idea will extend both to the story and gameplay of Death Stranding but has never really gone on to further explain what he's talking about. Actor Norman Reedus himself has also mirrored some of these sentiments in the past stating that the game is about "bringing everyone together."
While it's hard to know exactly what Kojima could mean with this idea, I'm wondering if that larger thought of us all being connected could somehow start to take shape in a demo for Death Stranding. Stick with me here as I do some downright insane guesswork, but what if a demo for the game somehow collected player data that could then be included in the final release? I'm not sure exactly what that would look like, but then again, I don't know how Kojima comes up with some of these ideas in the first place.
Even though a demo for fans could be seen as just that, a demo, maybe for Kojima and the rest of the team at Kojima Productions allowing fans to play the game early would provide valuable information that would allow them to, "Create the rope." I acknowledge that this is the craziest of all my points laid out in this article, but you have to be a little crazy when trying to guess what Kojima is up to.
Death Stranding May Not Come Until 2020 but Kojima Doesn't Want Fans to Wait
By far the biggest question surrounding Death Stranding for many has been, "When is the game releasing?" While Sony and Kojima Productions still haven't said a word about the release window other than stating that it's coming to PS4, I still personally believe that it's not going to arrive until 2020. I continue to believe this mainly because if the game was due out this year, I feel like we would've heard as much already.
Kojima himself also acknowledged earlier this year that development on Death Stranding is taking a little longer than he expected, so perhaps this means he feels bad about the game taking more time than he thought it would.
As such, with the game potentially not arriving until next year and a little bit later than originally hoped, maybe Kojima and company feel the need to give fans something to tide them over until the full product ends up arriving. How better to do that than by releasing a new, free demo? It would be pretty wild to just drop a demo for one of the most anticipated releases of the next few years out of nowhere, but the reasoning for doing so could make sense given these circumstances.
So what do you think? Am I out of my mind or does this actually all make sense? Let me know down in the comments. Either way, we'll learn for ourselves in probably less than 24-hours at this point just what is happening with Death Stranding. Still, if I do end up being right, you heard it from me first.