Hideo Kojima insists Death Stranding was a sales success
It's all connected.
Hideo Kojima has insisted Death Stranding was a sales success, and has enabled Kojima Productions to fund its unannounced second project.
In an interview with Japanese website Livedoor (translated by VGC), the Metal Gear Solid creator said: "We've absolutely crossed the line we needed to cross to be in the black, including recovering development costs, so I'd call it a successful result.
"We still have the PC release coming up, and we've secured enough to begin preparing for our next project, so there's no need to worry."
Death Stranding launched on PlayStation 4 on 8th November 2019 to positive reviews. It entered the UK boxed games chart in second place, behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and sat behind Days Gone as the second biggest PlayStation-published game of 2019. Sony Bend's not-zombie killer sold around a third more copies during its UK launch week. Death Stranding saw UK boxed sales similar to those of The Order 1866 and Bloodborne - each shifted similar amounts to Death Stranding during their first weeks on sale - all within 3000 copies of each other.
According to Famitsu boxed sales data, Death Stranding has sold 262,827 copies in Japan. In the US, Death Stranding was the seventh best-selling game of November 2019, according to The NPD Group. Death Stranding launches on PC on 14th July.
So, Death Stranding did well enough for Kojima to move on to his next project, but what is it? We don't know, yet, but we do know his thoughts are turning to horror.
"It's still in the early planning stages so I can't say much, but on the down-low I'm actively working on it," Kojima told Livedoor, before revealing his upset at the recent cancellation of a mystery major project.
"Recently a major project of mine got cancelled so I'm pretty pissed, but that's the games industry for you," Kojima said.
In the same interview, Kojima denied he'd bought Metal Gear Solid and P.T. from Konami, saying "that's completely false". Konami, though, is reportedly plotting to revive the Silent Hill franchise. In a statement issued to Eurogamer back in January, the Japanese company said: "We cannot share anything at this point, but we are listening to customer feedback and considering ways to provide the next title."