Sony Interactive Entertainment has sold a PlayStation exclusive IP to its developer. A little while ago, we shared the surprise announcement of Death Stranding Director’s Cut’s Xbox Series X|S release, which led to speculations that Sony might be warming up to the idea of releasing its IP on Xbox. However, it’s now been confirmed that Kojima Productions has purchased Death Stranding from Sony.
The curious case of PlayStation exclusive Death Stranding
The official Death Stranding Xbox announcement tweet includes a title image that carries the “2024 Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.” copyright at the bottom. This led to the assumption that Sony still has some sort of involvement in the IP. But an article published by Japanese site Automaton-Media (and later confirmed by IGN) states that Kojima Productions has actually purchased Death Stranding from Sony.
“Kojima Productions announced that the IP will belong to the studio,” Automaton-Media wrote (via Google translate).
This puts to rest speculations that Death Stranding was bound by a five-year console exclusivity deal (the Xbox announcement marks the game’s fifth anniversary). One possible explanation for the image in the tweet above is that Kojima Productions repurposed an old image and plastered new text on top of it.
Death Stranding’s sequel, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, will launch exclusively on the PS5 in 2025.