Hideo Kojima and his company Kojima Productions released Death Stranding on PlayStation 4 in 2019. Following a successful launch, the studio wanted to work on its next title, which was apparently meant to be an exclusive title for Google’s now-dead Stadia platform.
According to a report by 9to5Google, Kojima Productions was to work on a new title but it isn’t confirmed if this title was to be a sequel to Death Stranding — an asynchronous multiplayer game where you could indirectly interact with other players by building bridges, leaving messages, and helping others get to their destination. Instead, this project was supposedly a single-player title.
From the sounds of it, the decision to make the experience strictly single-player is what led Google to axe the project because Google assumed the project wouldn’t sell. It was reportedly in early development too after being given a green light from Google. However, the mockups shown to executives led to a swift cancellation.
Yesterday’s not-so-shocking news that Google would be shuttering Stadia on January 18, 2023, and closing the store and Pro subscriptions, doesn’t come as surprise to me. From the initial reveal at GDC, Stadia never really stood a chance due to terrible executive decisions that led to adding another body to the Google Graveyard. The technology the platform offered was some of the best I’ve used to stream my library but it was the lack of games and incentive to use it that led to its demise.
I wouldn’t worry about Kojima though, during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase it was revealed Kojima Productions would be developing a new game for Microsoft.
