The Impact Factor

Don’t Get Stranded: Death Stranding and Far Future Releases

Perspectives

Abstract: Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding was one of the most discussed E3 2016 reveals. It’s fun to be excited about new games. What wasn’t made clear, however, was that Death Stranding is probably a 2019 release at the absolute earliest. Games should not be shown this early. The volatile and difficult nature of game development can mean that games revealed too soon can disappear, receive lengthy delays, or change entirely. Developers and publishers should consider what they announce more carefully, only showing off games that are at most 18 months away. Fans should be mindful of release windows, with a preference for specific dates. We need to come together on this.

At the year’s most impactful video game tradeshow, E3 2016, everything is fighting for attention. The three-day event showcases hundreds, if not thousands, of games. If your game isn’t attached to some long running franchise, it has to do something truly unique to leave a lasting impression. When you take a look at the games announced at E3 2016, I suppose it should come as no surprise that one of the most bizarre game trailers I’ve seen in quite some time was also one of the most talked about. That game is Death Stranding,

Death Stranding was announced on PlayStation’s E3 press conference stage. The game comes from lauded developer, and one of the most well known autuers of the games industry, Hideo Kojima. Kojima broke ground with Metal Gear Solid, leaving a legacy of games that embrace the strange while delivering an exceptional gameplay experience. Konami restructured, ousting Kojima. It wasn’t long before Sony swooped in to snatch him up, offering resources, support, and (one would assume) creative freedom in exchange for making his new title for PlayStation. No one could have guessed what Kojima had in mind.

The concept trailer for Death Stranding is something else. We see a fully modeled, and fully nude, Norman Reedus awake on a bleak gray beach. The water is black and oily. Giant whales and squids are beached upon the shore. As the teaser continues, we discover Reedus is attached via mechanical umbilical cord to a fetus. Reedus grabs that fetus only for it to fade away in his arms. The camera then pans down his torso, showing a scar across his stomach as if he had received a C-section. He then looks over the ocean to see five humanoid figures ominously floating in the sky. Finally, the title: Death Stranding.

Death Stranding's reveal was awesome. 

Sounds exciting, right? Or if not exciting, certainly unique. I got excited too. Who wouldn’t? Kojima, for better and worse, has a peerless artistic vision. Nothing has looked, or will look, like Death Stranding. Kojima’s new title promises to bring something gamers have never seen before. E3 2016 promised the moon with the reveal of Death Stranding. We didn’t just get a title, we didn’t just get concept art. We got a fully animated teaser trailer. Worth being excited for? Yes and no.

As it turns out, perhaps unsurprisingly for those of us who follow the industry more closely, none of what was shown in the Death Stranding teaser comes anywhere close to being “a game.” Kojima revealed that the trailer was assembled over the course of a few months, intended to set the stage for the game’s forthcoming development. As interviewers pried more, we got a look into just how far away we are from actually playing Death Stranding. Kojima Productions has not even decided on what engine they want to run the game on. That’s right. That teaser trailer we all know and love? It was made in one of the two engines the team is considering. Even worse, gameplay prototypes are currently being made on the other engine. This means that Death Stranding is in its earliest phases of pre-production. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to have the game in our hands by the end of 2019. More realistically, however, I would not expect Death Stranding to come out before 2020. Death Stranding is a long, long way off.

These hands won't be playing Death Standing until 2019 at the absolute earliest.

So why even show it? I’m sure fans don’t want to hear that they will have to wait upwards of 4 years to play Death Stranding. Unfortunately, this is nothing new in the games industry, nonetheless at E3. On one hand, I can understand why developers and publishers want to announce games like Death Stranding to the world. They’re exciting. They’re new. They get people talking about your game over the course of months and years. They can lead into a nice marketing plan. I get it. I love to be excited about new games, and teasers like Death Stranding get me excited for the future. These hyper-early reveals can be insidious, though. They often do more harm than good. For starters, very few people who watch the Death Stranding trailer will release the game is incredibly early in development. Speaking anecdotally, I work with a pair of people who are relatively knowledgeable gamers and they had no idea that Death Stranding is so far out. They were horrified. I felt bad, because I turned a lot of their interest into disdain when they found out Death Stranding is at minimum 3 years away.

This problem has existed for nearly as long as I can remember. Last console generation (PS3/Xbox 360) in particular felt like it promised the moon each and every chance it got. It’s easy to forget that games like The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy XV (both releasing Fall 2016) were shown for the first time running on PS3. The games were shown to us nearly a decade ago. As a result, I’ve had a weird love/hate/sadness cycle of ‘will this game ever come out’ because I saw too much too soon. Showing off a game too early carries other risks. Sometimes games just don’t get made. Like the fetus in Death Stranding, sometimes these games just disappear never to be heard from again. Rockstar’s Agent or Bioshock Infinite Vita, for example, were both shown off and promised on the industry’s biggest stages – yet neither will see the light of day.

Don't hold your breath. We're probably never going to get Agent.

It’s easy to feel the hype for new releases, but don’t get stranded out at sea (or on the beach?) by games like Death Stranding. If anything, this current console generation (PS4/X1) has given enthusiasts all the more reason to be skeptical. Whereas last generation was all about games disappearing, this generation is all about delays. Uncharted 4, delayed. Horizon Zero Dawn, delayed. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, delayed. Batman Arkham Knight, No Man’s Sky, The Division, The Order 1886 – all delayed. If Death Stranding follows the precedent set before it, a timely release seems unlikely.

Nathan Drake is looking down because he feels bad that
Uncharted 4 got delayed so many times.

The most important thing I want readers to take away from this is to always look for release information when you see a game that excites you. When done well, early game reveals will give the audience a tentative release window like Fall 2016, or Spring 2017. Specific dates are obviously preferred, though rare when a game is first shown off. Be wary of when a game just gives a year – this often means that the project is early in its production and is therefore more likely to receive a delay. And when you see no year, no window, no month, no day at all? Be hyper critical. The trailer you saw was most likely a rough sketch, a concept, and not an actual game (yet).

Perhaps Death Stranding is the exception. I’d love for it to be. If Kojima Productions could make a stellar game and get it out by early 2018 I would be ecstatic. Realistically, though, I cannot see that happening. Reveals like these especially bother me when some publishers/developers have proven that “late” reveal can work so well. Bethesda stunned the world at E3 2015 when they showed Fallout 4 for the first time, and that the game would be out in a matter of months. While the 6-month PR/marketing cycle cannot work for every game (Fallout is a megaton exception here), an 18-month one can. I urge publishers and developers to hold games back until they are at most a year and a half away from release. It keeps excitement high. It gives fans the time to engage and speculate and share their passion with others. And it prevents people from wondering three plus years later why they still can’t play Death Stranding.

Save your energy for games that are releasing sooner.

Don’t get stranded by far future releases. Death Stranding will be in our hands eventually. If you can, focus your energy on the titles you know are coming soon. Everyone will be better for it.