Cancelled Stadia-exclusive Death Stranding sequel never existed, says Hideo Kojima

Despite earlier reports, according to boss Hideo Kojima himself, a death stranding exclusive sequel to Google Stadia was never going to happen.

Back in September a report emerged stating that at some point, a Death Stranding sequel of some kind was in development for Stadia, but was ultimately canceled by Google Stadia General Manager Phil Harrison as the company believed there was no longer a market for games of a single player. Well, that report was wrong by the looks of it, as during the tenth episode of his Brain Structure PodcastKojima put an end to the speculation (thanks, GamesRadar).

“How do you react to that?” Kojima hypothetically asked about the numerous things players come to him with. “Users send me things like this directly, like ‘the word is out about so-and-so.’ It’s constant, almost every day, and I don’t know where the original source came from, so I can’t say much about it.”

Kojima later noted that he had never talked to Harrison about a sequel to Death Stranding. “The rumor that Death Stranding, other than a sequel, was in the works to be a Google exclusive title is unfounded, and Phil Harrison ultimately turned it down is pretty impossible. I never said anything to Phil about wanting to create a Death Stranding sequel.” I don’t know who got this information. [or] From where.”

It’s rare that we get something as forceful as this from a developer, so it’s refreshing to have an actual statement on something like this, even if the general public doesn’t care in the end.

However, we do know quite a bit that a sequel to Death Stranding is in development, as Norman Reedus literally said earlier this year, but has yet to be officially revealed. It’s not the only project Kojima Productions is working on, as Kojima himself is teasing Overdose, which is also unconfirmed, and part of the game was leaked online earlier this week.