While Hideo Kojima's games are often brilliant, wacky experiences, PC gamers often have to deal with the fact that they don’t often come to their platform of choice. However, following a recent tweet from Kojima Productions, it’s now confirmed that Death Stranding will buck this trend, arriving on Windows in “early summer” of 2020.
Ever since the game's announcement during E3 2016, fans had been hoping to see this rather cryptic title come to Windows. However, all of the early trailers were stamped with a PS4 logo, putting these hopes down. And then, all of a sudden, that changed. The PlayStation branding disappeared and marketing was suddenly angled towards the game itself, rather than the platform it was on, and rumblings of a PC port returned.
Death Stranding's PC port has likely guaranteed an extra stack of money for Kojima Productions, provided that the port to PC is of good quality.
Now that this tweet has confirmed the game for PC, it has likely guaranteed an extra stack of money for Kojima Productions, provided that the port to PC is of good quality. This may not be the case, however. Looking back at Metal Gear Solid V’s PC port, it was a mixed bag. The game itself ran smoothly, with plenty of extra graphical options for those who really wanted to get the most out of their system.
Sadly, other staple features for PC gamers, such as in-game audio controls, graceful mouse-and-keyboard functionality alongside mouse controls in menus, were simply missing entirely. It’s these small, but fundamental features that greatly improve the quality of life for PC users.
As Kojima’s first project with total independence, he and his team will be taking all the time they need to ensure that Death Stranding ships in a polished and stable state.
If there’s a silver lining to this worrying history, one needs to remember that Metal Gear Solid V was under enormous time constraints and budget cuts from series publisher Konami, whose partnership with Kojima has since ended. As Kojima’s first project with total independence, he and his team will be taking all the time they need to ensure that Death Stranding ships in a polished and stable state.
As ever with Hideo Kojima, there has been an enormous fan reaction, which should hopefully put a little pressure on KojiPro to do the same with the game’s PC port next summer.
