What Hideo Kojima's celebrity grand tour could mean for Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima's living his best life, hanging out with all your faves, working on a cool video game called Death Stranding, and getting free instant ramen wherever he goes. The prominent game developer often posts snippets from his life and all the interesting people he meets on Twitter, but it seems like he's really amped it up in the last week or so.

It's probably a coincidence that Kojima is having such a conspicuously great time while Konami releases Metal Gear Survive, its first post-Kojima Metal Gear game, to a tepid response. As they say, living well is the best revenge - and apparently some of his old co-workers still haven't forgotten him. But that's all behind Kojima now, and some of these meetings may give use even more reason to be excited for Death Stranding and its presumptive appearance as an E3 2018 game. 

Norman Reedus

Just for a warm-up, here's Kojima chilling with Norman Reedus. These kinds of hangouts are actually pretty common since Reedus plays the main character of Death Stranding (and he says the concept is mindblowing, a bit like an episode of Black Mirror). Oh, and those are just  herbal supplements they're holding, not weird little liquor bottles, because Kojima's the kind of person that herbal supplement companies send free products to. Influencing! 

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon

Here's where it starts branching out a bit. Kojima also just happened to grab dinner with Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. You may have seen their autobiographical comedy drama  The Big Sick , or spotted Nanjiani on HBO's Silicon Valley. Mutual admiration all around, I'm sure, but this might have been a business dinner too. Nanjiani is a big fan of video games and had minor voice roles in both Mass Effect: Andromeda and Middle-earth: Shadow of War in 2017. Kojima's games typically have an odd sense of humor underlining their action and melodrama, so perhaps there's room in Death Stranding for Nanjiani as well? 

Jordan Vogt-Roberts

We've seen Kojima chilling with Jordan Vogt-Roberts (director of Kong: Skull Island) in the past, since Vogt-Roberts is currently helming the long-in-development Metal Gear Solid movie. The cool bit here is that Vogt-Roberts actually got to watch Kojima directing a scene for Death Stranding, which means the magnificently bearded filmmaker now knows 1,000 percent more about what the hell that game actually is than the rest of the Earth's population.

Wait, Grimes too? Damn

 This is where Kojima just starts showing off. Here he is hanging out with Grimes, a star of the indie electronic music scene (Oblivion is a hella catchy song if you like your music full of reverb and weirdness). Probably just chilling, not talking about potential collaborations, right? Yeah… probably. 

The Gang

And here's a group photo of Kojima's buds hanging out with Kojima Productions producer Ken Imaizumi - note that Reedus is in his performance capture suit and face-dots. So that Grimes visit wasn't just for a quick handshake and album signing then? Alright, I'll say it: it'd be pretty cool if Kojima got Grimes on board to do some music for the game. Their respective weirdnesses could mesh well for a topsy turvy, James-Bond-style musical opening! 

...and a ton of instant ramen

Also, Kojima got a bunch of free Cup Noodles from Nissin, and you certainly can't argue with that. Looks like the care package came with a matching hoodie too. 

I don't think this has anything to do with Death Stranding. Actually, they did put branded food (like Calorie Mate) into Metal Gear games, so I wouldn't rule out Norman Reedus restoring HP lost from a skeleton soldier attack with a steaming cup of noodles.

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