Death Stranding is a 2019 action-adventure game created by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is the first game made by director Hideo Kojima and his team after they left Konami in 2015. The game was first released for PlayStation 4 in November 2019, then for Windows in July 2020. A special version for PlayStation 5 was released in September 2021, followed by Windows versions in March 2022. Additional versions were released for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS in January 2024, and for Amazon Luna and Xbox Series X/S in November 2024. Sony published the game on their consoles, while 505 Games published all other versions under a license from Kojima Productions.
The game takes place in the United States after a major disaster that caused dangerous creatures to appear. The player controls Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus), a courier who delivers supplies to isolated communities and helps them connect through a wireless network. However, Sam is chased by a group that wants to destroy humanity, led by a mysterious man named Higgs. The game also includes actors such as Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Margaret Qualley, Troy Baker, Tommie Earl Jenkins, and Lindsay Wagner, as well as the likenesses of directors Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn.
Death Stranding received mostly positive reviews. Critics praised its voice acting, music, and visuals, though opinions about the gameplay and story were more divided. The game was nominated for many awards and won the most "Game of the Year" awards in 2019. By March 2021, the game had sold 5 million copies worldwide. Some people later noticed that parts of the game reminded them of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began shortly after the game was released.
A sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, was released on June 26, 2025, for PlayStation 5. Two film adaptations and a television series are currently being developed.
Gameplay
Death Stranding is an action-adventure game set in an open world and includes online features that do not require players to be online at the same time. Kojima, the game’s creator, calls Death Stranding the first "strand game," a new type of game that includes social elements. Kojima compared this genre to how his earlier game Metal Gear—now considered a stealth game—was called an action game when it was released because the stealth genre had not yet been defined.
The player controls Sam Bridges, a worker for a company named BRIDGES. The player’s goal is to deliver supplies to isolated cities called KNOTs, as well as to researchers and survivalists, while connecting them to a communication system called the Chiral Network. The player’s performance, such as whether supplies are delivered safely, is evaluated by the company and recipients, similar to how social media uses "likes." These evaluations help improve the player’s abilities, such as stability and weight capacity, and increase their standing with locations and characters, which can lead to better rewards. How supplies are packed and the weight carried affect how well Sam can move through the game world.
The game uses music from bands like Silent Poets and Low Roar to enhance specific scenes and moments of exploration. Kojima explained that the music matches the game’s setting, which is both harsh and beautiful. He also said that the sound of Low Roar’s music, which blends acoustic and futuristic styles, fits the game’s themes. After the death of Low Roar’s lead singer, Ryan Karazija, in 2022, Kojima stated, "Without [Low Roar], Death Stranding would not have been born."
The player’s main enemies include otherworldly creatures called "beached things" (BTs), rogue porters known as MULEs who steal supplies, and Demens, who are MULEs that kill porters to take their cargo. BTs are surrounded by a type of rain called "timefall," which damages the player’s armor and supplies by accelerating their decay. BTs are usually invisible, but Sam’s suit has a robotic sensor called an "odradek" that helps locate them. Once found, the player can scan the area to reveal them.
As Sam is a "repatriate," he is sent to an underwater world called the "Seam" if he is killed. There, he can return to his body to revive himself. However, if he is killed by a BT, it causes a destructive explosion called a "voidout," which creates a permanent, untraversable crater at the location of his death.
As the player expands the Chiral Network, they can access maps and use blueprints to create items and structures with a device called the Portable Chiral Constructor (PCC), which works like a 3D printer. These items include ropes, bridges, and power generators for charging equipment. The Chiral Network supports online features, allowing players to leave supplies, structures, and messages for others to use. However, these structures eventually break down due to timefall. Players can also recover supplies left by others to complete their deliveries. Players do not directly interact with other players in the game world.
Synopsis
The game takes place in a United States that has been destroyed by a major disaster called the "Death Stranding." This event caused "Beached Things" (BTs)—invisible creatures that come from a place called the "Beach," which is believed to be a special area people visit during near-death experiences and is thought to connect the living to the afterlife—to begin appearing on Earth. BTs are created when people die through a process called necrosis. When a BT eats a living person, it causes a powerful explosion called a "voidout." These explosions also create a type of rain called "Timefall," which quickly ages and damages anything it touches. These events destroyed much of the country, forcing the remaining people to live in remote areas called "Knot Cities," which are now the only parts of the United States still standing, known as the "United Cities of America."
These cities rely on a company called BRIDGES, which sends workers called "porters" to deliver supplies despite dangers like BTs, bandits, and terrorists. BRIDGES also helps the United Cities of America with government tasks. If a person can mentally connect with a "Bridge Baby" (a BB)—a baby born early and believed to exist in a state between life and death—they may be able to sense BTs. Porters carry a BB in a special container that mimics the womb of a "stillmother." Some people have a condition called "DOOMS," which allows them to naturally sense, see, or control BTs and gain abilities like teleportation or visiting other people's Beaches. There are also people called "repatriates" who can return from "the Seam"—a space between the living world and the Beach—after dying. However, if a repatriate is killed by a BT, it still causes a voidout.
A freelance courier named Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus) is delivering supplies to Central Knot City when he is caught in a Timefall storm and takes shelter. He is helped by a woman named Fragile (Léa Seydoux) to escape a BT. When Sam arrives at his destination, he finds a citizen who has died by suicide, and their body is beginning to decay. Because Sam is a repatriate and has DOOMS, he is assigned to help a disposal team incinerate the body. However, an encounter with BTs causes a voidout that destroys Central Knot City.
Sam wakes up in Capital Knot City and meets Deadman (Guillermo del Toro/Jesse Corti), a BRIDGES doctor who asks Sam to deliver morphine to the dying President of the United Cities of America: Sam's adoptive mother, Bridget Strand (Lindsay Wagner/Emily O'Brien). Bridget pleads with Sam to join BRIDGES again and help her realize her dream of "reforming America" before she dies. Sam takes Bridget's body for incineration but refuses to incinerate a Bridge Baby involved in the Central Knot City voidout. With the BB's help, Sam escapes a group of BTs and decides to adopt the baby as his own Bridge Baby, naming it "Lou," despite BRIDGES rules that treat Bridge Babies as equipment. Over time, Sam forms an emotional bond with Lou.
After returning to Capital Knot City, Sam receives a message from his estranged sister, Amelie Strand (also played by Lindsay Wagner/Emily O'Brien). She explains that over the past three years, she has led an expedition across the United States, connecting isolated cities and settlements to the Chiral Network—a system that allows instant communication and data sharing through the Beach. When Amelie reached the last city on the West Coast, Edge Knot City, she was captured by a terrorist group called Homo Demens, which wants to keep the city independent. Amelie asks Sam to continue her work and complete the Chiral Network, which would help "reform America." She also says that if Sam finishes this mission, he can rescue her and she can take Bridget's place as President of the United Cities of America. Sam reluctantly agrees to the mission.
Following instructions from Die-Hardman (Tommie Earl Jenkins), Bridget's personal aide and BRIDGES director, Sam begins his journey from the east to the west coast of North America. Along the way, he delivers supplies to various Knot Cities and settlements, helps BRIDGES staff like Mama and her twin sister Lockne (Margaret Qualley), Heartman (Nicolas Winding Refn/Darren Jacobs), and stops terrorist plots led by Higgs Monaghan (Troy Baker). While connected to Lou, Sam experiences memories of Clifford Unger (Mads Mikkelsen) and his hospitalized wife and BB child. Sometimes, Sam is pulled into Clifford's Beach, where he fights a BT version of Clifford who is searching for his lost BB.
After reaching Edge Knot City, Sam fights and defeats Higgs at Amelie's Beach. Higgs reveals that Amelie is an "Extinction Entity"—a godlike being created by the universe to cause mass extinctions. Amelie is shown to be the real leader of Homo Demens and the person who started the Chiral Network to bring about the "Last Stranding," the end of life on Earth. It is also revealed that Amelie and Bridget are the same person. Bridget's soul separated from her body during early experiments with the Beach and used the name "Amelie" as a disguise. Amelie is conflicted about her role, believing the Last Stranding is more humane than endless cycles of life and death.
With help from allies he made during his journey, Sam convinces Amelie to delay the Last Stranding. Moved by Sam's efforts, Amelie agrees but must separate herself and her Beach from the world forever. Sam is rescued by his BRIDGES allies and returns to the living. Die-Hardman becomes the new President of the United Cities of America, and Fragile decides to rebuild her company. Sam is told that Lou is dying. Although UCA laws require dying BBs to be incinerated, Sam follows Deadman's advice and removes Lou from the pod in hopes of saving its life. In doing so, Sam connects with Lou one last time and learns that the memories he saw were his own: he is Clifford Unger's son, who Bridget Strand had turned into a BB, accidentally killed alongside Clifford during a failed escape, and later resurrected by Amelie. This event caused the Death Stranding, allowing BTs to cross over. The spirits of deceased BBs help save Lou's life, and Sam destroys his UCA cufflinks, choosing to live a peaceful life raising BBs. In a post-credits scene, Sam reveals that the BB he is raising is actually "Louise."
Development
After a long business disagreement with Konami, Kojima Productions closed in July 2015. In December, the company re-formed as an independent video game developer and studio. That same month, Hideo Kojima announced a partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was led by Andrew House at the time, to create a new PlayStation game.
Kojima revealed the game during Sony’s E3 2016 conference with a teaser trailer. The trailer included music from Low Roar, which was later used in the final game. The trailer used technology called photogrammetry and motion capture. It featured Norman Reedus, who was the model for the game’s main character. This was the second time Kojima and Reedus worked together, after the canceled game Silent Hills. Kojima and Mark Cerny, the lead system architect for the PlayStation 4, spent two weeks in January 2016 searching for a game engine to use for development. One engine was used to create the teaser trailer. Guerrilla Games later joined the project, as they provided their own game engine called Decima. Kojima Productions’ meeting room was recreated in the engine to help test lighting effects and ensure accuracy.
The game entered full development in 2017. A few days before E3 2017, Kojima announced the game would not be shown during Sony’s usual conference. In June 2017, Shawn Layden, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, confirmed that Death Stranding was in a playable alpha version but could not be easily classified into a specific genre. A teaser was shown during The Game Awards 2017 in December, where Kojima, Reedus, and del Toro appeared. Kojima explained that the team could not complete performance capture or voice-over work for the third trailer in time for E3 2017 due to a video game voice actor strike in 2016–2017, so the trailer was delayed until The Game Awards.
In February 2018, Emily O’Brien and Troy Baker joined the game’s cast. At the event, a new trailer was shown, revealing gameplay for the first time and introducing Léa Seydoux and Lindsay Wagner as part of the cast. On September 18, 2018, it was announced at Tokyo Game Show 2018 that Tommie Earl Jenkins would portray a key character in the game. Akio Ōtsuka, Kikuko Inoue, Nana Mizuki, and Satoshi Mikami—veterans of the Metal Gear series—along with Kenjiro Tsuda, joined the Japanese voice cast. In March 2019, Hideo Kojima said Death Stranding was slightly behind its planned release date. He was testing and adjusting the gameplay daily, calling that phase of development “critical.”
A trailer released in May 2019 introduced Margaret Qualley as Mama and Nicolas Winding Refn as Heartman. Character names revealed included Cliff (Mikkelsen), Fragile (Seydoux), Deadman (del Toro), Die-Hardman (Jenkins), Higgs (Baker), and Amelie (Wagner). O’Brien, Jesse Corti, and Darren Jacobs were credited for voice-over work in the trailer. Del Toro and Refn received a “Special Appearance” credit, with Kojima explaining that only their likenesses were used, and their voice and motion capture were performed by other actors. The same trailer revealed the game’s release date of November 8, 2019. In a blog post, Kojima explained that the game’s core theme was “the true importance of forging connections with others,” referring to the player’s goal of “reconnecting” an isolated and fractured society to bridge divides and create new bonds or “Strands” with players worldwide. Certain themes and elements of the story were influenced by Kojima’s childhood and the deaths of his parents.
During Gamescom 2019, two more trailers were shown. The first included a key game element, a BB (Bridge Baby), alongside the character “Deadman.” The second introduced the character “Mama.” A 6-minute gameplay trailer was also shown, detailing mechanics such as the ability to urinate and deliver packages to isolated stations. This trailer featured Canadian journalist Geoff Keighley as a hologram interacting with the main character, Sam. Japanese writer Junji Ito appeared as the hologram of the Engineer, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. The film director was modeled after Jordan Vogt-Roberts, while director Edgar Wright provided his likeness for Thomas Southerland. Hirokazu Hamamura made an appearance as the Collector. Liam O’Brien and Sam Lake were credited as the voice actor and model of Veteran Porter, respectively. Phillip North was portrayed by Tommy Wirkola.
During the Tokyo Game Show conference, Kojima showed and discussed an 83-minute video highlighting general gameplay features. Kojima said he was open to developing a sequel to expand the “Strand game” genre. On September 26, 2019, Kojima Productions announced the game had gone gold. In October 2019, it was announced that the game would be released on Windows by 505 Games in mid-2020, confirming rumors about a PC port that had existed since 2015. The game was released on July 14, 2020. That same month, comedian Conan O’Brien revealed a character modeled after him in the game, which was created using a digital scan from his visit to Kojima Productions’ studio. The game’s official soundtrack, Death Stranding: Timefall, was released on November 7, 2019, through RCA Records and Sony Interactive Entertainment. It featured artists such as Chvrches, The Neighbourhood, Major Lazer, and Bring Me the Horizon.
A director’s cut version of the game with new gameplay additions was released for PlayStation 5 on September 24, 2021, followed by a Windows release on March 30, 2022. The base game was added to PC Game Pass on August 23, 2022, with several unlockable items. On November 9, 2024, Kojima Productions announced that they had re-acquired the intellectual property rights to Death Stranding from Sony Interactive Entertainment. They planned to bring the game to additional platforms, including the immediate launch of the director’s cut on the Microsoft Store for Windows, Xbox Series X/S consoles, and the Amazon Luna cloud gaming service.
Reception
The game was announced at E3 2016 and received positive feedback. In 2017, it was nominated by the Golden Joystick Awards for "Most Wanted Game." In June 2018, after E3 press events, its YouTube trailer became one of the most watched, with over 4.5 million views.
When the game was released, it received "generally favorable" reviews on Metacritic. Some reviewers praised its unique ideas, graphics, and music, while others found it slow or confusing.
Russ Frushtick of Polygon called the game "the most advanced walking simulator" and said it included many "fetch quests," but he also said it became enjoyable once it improved. He described it as two different games: one with an open world and cooperative multiplayer, and another with a strange, confusing story. Matthew Kato of Game Informer gave it a 7 out of 10, saying the gameplay was simple and the story and missions were not engaging enough.
It is the fourth game directed by Hideo Kojima and the 26th game overall to receive a perfect 40/40 score from Famitsu, a Japanese magazine.
Some critics said the game portrayed asexuality as a "sexless" lifestyle choice and linked it to declining birth rates. In the director's cut, this data log was revised to include a note that the original views were considered controversial and unsubstantiated.
The game faced review bombing on Metacritic, where users posted negative reviews to lower its score. In December 2019, the website removed over 6,000 suspicious reviews to stop score manipulation.
In its first week, Death Stranding became the best-selling physical game in Japan, selling 185,909 copies. This made it the most successful debut for a new game in Japan for the next generation of consoles. It remained in the top 30 best-selling games for five weeks, reaching over 253,000 copies sold by December 2019. By March 2020, it had sold 262,827 physical copies and an estimated 136,279 digital copies in Japan.
In the UK, it debuted at number two on the physical sales chart, behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It was the second biggest PlayStation exclusive debut of the year. According to Media Create, it topped the physical sales charts in Taiwan, South Korea, Italy, and France, and placed second in Switzerland.
On the PlayStation Network, the game had an estimated 3 million players, including 390,000 monthly active users, by April 2020. It sold 477,000 digital copies on Steam in its first month.
Hideo Kojima said in May 2020 that the game had sold enough to cover development costs and make a profit, helping fund Kojima Productions' next project.
In April 2021, Digital Bros, the parent company of 505 Games, reported that the PC version of the game generated €23 million ($27 million) in revenue by December 2020, making it the company's highest-grossing game that year. By October 2021, the PC version had generated €31 million. As of March 2021, the game had sold 5 million copies worldwide for PS4 and PC.
By April 2025, the game had reached over 20 million players worldwide.
It won the "Best PS4 Exclusive" award at the IGN Game of the Year Awards 2019 and was nominated for "Best Music/Score" and "Best Art Direction."
Many commentators noted that the game's story and gameplay reminded them of the COVID-19 pandemic. This connection was similar to how a previous Kojima game, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001), had predicted events from the 2010s, such as fake news. A parody game called Walking Simulator, set in a post-apocalyptic world affected by the pandemic, was released in March 2020.
Sequel
In May 2022, a sequel to the game was announced to be in development. Norman Reedus shared this news during an interview with Leo Edit, where he said, "We just started work on the second one." He also mentioned how the first game was successful, winning many awards and becoming very popular. He added that the team had begun working on the second part. In response, Hideo Kojima posted a series of photos on Twitter, showing him playfully punishing Reedus for confirming the sequel's development. Images of the sequel were later shown at several game expos, featuring actors Elle Fanning, Shioli Kutsuna, and Léa Seydoux.
A first trailer for Death Stranding 2 (stylized as DS2 and noted as a working title) was shown at The Game Awards 2022. This confirmed the involvement of the previously teased actors, including Troy Baker, who had appeared in the first game.
A second trailer was released during a State of Play presentation by Sony on January 31, 2024. This trailer revealed the subtitle On the Beach and set a planned release date for 2025. It included images of George Miller (voiced by Marty Rhone) and Fatih Akin (portrayed as a puppet, performed by Jonathan Roumie).
Adaptations
A live-action film adaptation of Death Stranding was announced on December 15, 2022. Kojima Productions worked with Alex Lebovici and his company, Hammerstone Studios, to make the film. Allan Ungar was the executive producer. A24 was revealed as a co-producer when a t-shirt with the company’s logo, themed to Death Stranding, appeared on A24’s merchandise website. Michael Sarnoski is set to write and direct the film, with Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen as producers. Hideo Kojima stated the film is planned for a 2027 release.
In June 2025, Kojima Productions announced an anime film based on Death Stranding, temporarily named Death Stranding Mosquito, was in development with Line Mileage. Hiroshi Miyamoto of ABC Animation will direct it, and Aaron Guzikowski will write the original story. A teaser trailer was released on September 23, 2025.
In November 2025, an animated television series titled Death Stranding Isolations was announced. It will tell a story different from the video game. E&H Production is making it. The series is expected to premiere on Disney+ in 2027.