With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach officially hitting shelves, legendary game creator Hideo Kojima recently sat down with IndieWire to chat about post-launch updates and DLC. His take? Small tweaks are cool, but big expansions? Not so fast.
Kojima pointed out that unlike movies or TV, games can evolve post-launch with updates and DLC. But, he stressed, not everything should be messed with.
"When it comes to the story, it's a product of its time, and you shouldn't change it," Kojima explained. "Like George Lucas swapping out all the Star Wars effects for CG – that was for a new era, right?" He emphasized that such drastic changes don't work for every piece of art, and he's personally not keen on messing with a work's original "sense of its era."
So, what kind of updates can fans expect? Kojima says he'll focus on gameplay tweaks: think new accessibility features, smoother item handling, and bigger UI elements. "Basically, it's all about small, detailed changes to make the game easier to experience," he noted.
And what about the DLC everyone's buzzing about? Kojima admitted he's not rushing into it. While DLC can extend a game's lifespan, he believes it often traps projects in an endless production loop, making it impossible to ever truly finish.
"Once you start making DLC, you might never actually finish the project," he warned. He pointed to The Sims 4, which has relied on years of DLC updates without a new mainline entry, as a prime example of a situation that's far from ideal for creators who prioritize story structure.
With Death Stranding 2 now out in the wild, Kojima's already got his next moves lined up. That includes "OD," a new, "somewhat risky" and "unprecedented" project with comedian and director Jordan Peele, plus a live-action Death Stranding movie in the works. He stressed that the film won't just be a straight adaptation, but will instead unveil an "entirely new, never-before-seen world."
via： IndieWire