In time for Death Stranding’s fifth anniversary, Kojima Productions has also that it now has full ownership of the IP.
Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now available on Xbox Series X|S and Amazon Luna, in addition to PlayStation and PC.
Kojima Productions didn’t share any financial details, so the financial terms of taking over full IP rights are unclear. As the studio said in a press release, it “will continue its focus on bringing their award-winning IP” to more platforms and audiences.
Originally launched in November 2019, Death Stranding remained a PlayStation exclusive for almost a year and arrived on PC in July 2020.
The timed exclusivity was part of Kojima Productions’ partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment announced in December 2015, shortly after the termination of Hideo Kojima’s employment contract with Konami.
Sony also funded Death Stranding, but its development and marketing costs remain undisclosed. Kojima Productions also partnered with Digital Bros’ subsidiary 505 Games, which distributed the game’s PC version. The latter generated over €23 million in revenue in five months.
According to a new post on the studio’s official website, Death Stranding has surpassed 19 million players across PlayStation and PC. As of December 2023, it had over 16 million users, meaning it took the game around 11 months to add another 3 million.
It is worth noting that Death Stranding was available on subscription services like PC Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, and was twice free-to-claim on the Epic Games Store. Its pure sales are unclear, but in July 2021, Kojima Productions head of publishing Jay Boor revealed that the game has sold over 5 million units across PlayStation 4 and PC.
Kojima Productions is now working on Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, which will be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game is expected to launch in 2025 for PlayStation 5, with versions for other platforms to follow later.