Hideo Kojima says he's working on Death Stranding 2's "specs and flow," and adding details, abating fan fears of a larger overhaul

Death Stranding 2 PS5 screenshot
(Image credit: Kojima Productions)

Hideo Kojima has clarified a seemingly-misunderstood tweet about work ongoing for Death Stranding 2, revealing that Kojima Productions is currently working to "change the specs and the flow of the game, and adding details."

Yesterday Hideo Kojima's assistant tweeted out a picture of the Death Stranding 2 developer. Kojima is seemingly playing Death Stranding 2, but the finer details of what he was actually playing, and the work that he was doing on the sequel, was left unsaid.

From that tweet, Kojima provided the context seen just below. Kojima reveals that he's playtesting elements like "gameplay, map, enemies, placing things, events, UI, graphics, sound, animation, VFX, cut scenes, scenario," and "how everything is connected." He then sends notes on these topics to the relevant production departments within the studio.

Apparently this caused a bit of misunderstanding between Kojima and all 3.9 million of his Twitter followers. The director elaborated in a follow-up tweet that he isn't significantly altering those parts of Death Stranding 2, but instead providing feedback on them so they can be altered to better gel and mesh with other areas of the sequel.

"After we finish this part, we then go on to adjusting the total balance of the game → adjusting the processing load and adjusting difficulty levels→ debugging," Kojima added in the rest of the tweet above. It's positive that the game director has provided this look under the hood of game development, however slight it might be. 

If you're after more Death Stranding 2 game news, you'll want to keep an eye on Tokyo Games Show next month. Kojima recently revealed that he'll be giving a talk at TGS along with cast members of Death Stranding 2, including Kenjiro Tsuda (Sam), Nana Mizuki (Fragile), Shion Wakayama, Tomokazu Sugita, and singer Daichi Miura, who had a cameo as The Musician in the first game.

Death Stranding 2's Norman Reedus says the sequel is more violent than its predecessor: "I feel like this one has a bit more violence in it."

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.