It has been almost three years since Death Stranding's initial reveal at E3 2016, and the forthcoming project from Kojima Productions is still shrouded in secrecy, particularly when it comes to the title's expected release date. Speaking of which, a recent statement from the game's director, Hideo Kojima, could mean that fans may be waiting even longer than they expected for the PlayStation exclusive's launch.
During a recent exchange on Twitter between Kojima-san and Joe Penna–that is, the director of forthcoming feature length film, Arctic– the latter asked if he would be getting a chance to play Death Stranding since the Kojima Productions founder had alluded to the aforementioned movie in a previous tweet. Unfortunately, though, the game's director said, "It'll take a while," which indicates that not only will Penna have to wait for Death Stranding's release, but also gamers as a whole.
For those unaware, Arctic stars the Death Stranding actor Mads Mikkelsen, and Kojima has been known to use the social media site to cross-promote the projects of those with whom he collaborates. This seems to be done as a way for Kojima to not only show respect to his associates, but also to underscore some of the themes within Death Stranding, as Norman Reedus once declared in an interview that the game has "elements of social media in it". Alas, this brings us no closer to understanding exactly when the title will officially release.
Not too long ago, it was revealed that the first two hours of Death Stranding had been shown to the Horizon Zero Dawn developer Guerrilla Games, with the brevity of the preview implying that there's still a ways to go before the game's completion. Compound this with the fact that Kojima has now suggested it could be "a while" before Death Stranding finally drops, and there's a good chance that fans might be waiting for a post-2019 launch.
Death Stranding is currently in development as a PlayStation exclusive.
Source: Hideo Kojima – Twitter