Update: The documentary has gone live on BBC iPlayer, which you can watch here.
Hideo Kojima had a lot to say about Death Stranding when he spoke to BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. "We may be connected through the internet more than ever, but what's happening is that people are attacking each other because we're so connected," he tells gaming report Steffan Powell. That connection, according to Kojima, is why Death Stranding seeks to push people to think about connection.
Kojima goes even further into the global state of affairs, referencing political issues in both the US and the UK: "President Trump right now is building a wall. Then you have Brexit, where the UK is trying to leave, there are lots of walls and people thinking only about themselves in the world." In Death Stranding, Norman Reedus' Sam Porter Bridges seeks to save the world by delivering packages to remote locations, traversing rocky terrain and fending off those attempting to steal his wares. "The era of today is about individualism," Kojima suggests in the interview - it's clear that Death Stranding is an attempt to reject that.
BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat filmed a behind-the-scenes documentary at Kojima Productions HQ during the last hours of Death Stranding's production. Kojima candidly spoke about dealing with loneliness and how that inspired him to create such a unique gaming experience, one that he believes resonates with a lot of gamers. For Kojima, gamers are lonely as well: “Even though they're having fun with others outside when they are alone and playing video games in their living room they don't feel like they fit into society or their community. So when those people play this game they realize people like them exist all over the world. Knowing that even though I'm lonely, there are other people like me makes them feel at ease, that's what I would like for them to feel when playing the game.”
Death Stranding is currently only available on PS4, but will be coming to PC in early summer 2020. To prepare yourself, we've got the best PS4 Black Friday deals and Black Friday gaming PC bargains.
