Hideo Kojima Talks Death Stranding's Connection To COVID-19 Pandemic

Ahead of Death Stranding's PC port releasing tomorrow, director Hideo Kojima gave an interview with Geoff Keighley and was asked if he predicted the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This has become a popular theory among fans due to the game featuring self-isolation, contactless deliveries, and themes of divisiveness. However, the Metal Gear Solid creator shot down that idea.

"It was never imagining that [a pandemic] this kind of magnitude would happen," Kojima said. "I could just say anything in the world could happen and again, I wasn't even predicting at all about this."

Kojima has been asked many times if he was a prophet due to his past titles, such as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, becoming increasingly relevant over time due to it focusing on issues such as online echo chambers and news manipulation. However, Kojima rejects the notion saying that if he was a prophet then he would create games that sell more.

While he didn't predict the coronavirus pandemic, Kojima does believe Death Stranding's themes are more pertinent than ever.

"When I was designing Death Stranding in the concept stage, in the real world America or Europe, I [saw] signs of divide in the world," Kojima explained. "Even though we are all connected via internet, there was a lot of thinking of individualism starting at that time. In Death Stranding it was almost like an alarm I wanted to put into the society of what's going on.

"In Death Stranding, [and] people [are] experiencing this actual situation with the pandemic, it's not about physically if you're connected or not, it's a deeper feeling with people's connection. With this situation of the pandemic right now, I bet that everyone felt that way about connection with other people. That's one of the themes of Death Stranding. The world today, yes I was surprised, but it's important to think about how you connect with other people."