When Death Stranding 2: On the Beach dropped, many players were taken aback by how much of the story, even snippets from the final chapter, was already laid bare in the game's trailers. This was a stark departure from Hideo Kojima's usual M.O. of using "misleading trailers" to keep plot twists under wraps. Now, in a recent interview with The Washington Post, he's finally explained the method behind the madness. 
Kojima is famously known for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, where multiple trailers led players to believe Solid Snake was the main protagonist, only for Raiden to take center stage. This "prank" marketing became legendary in gaming history.
However, with Death Stranding 2, players found trailers directly revealing a ton of plot details, even impacting their gameplay experience. Kojima admits this was a deliberate choice. 
He points out that the definition of "spoiler" in today's entertainment culture has shifted. He uses Captain America: Brave New World as an example:
"Harrison Ford playing Red Hulk in the film was supposed to be a surprise, but by the time audiences walk into the theater, the posters have already spilled the beans." He believes that in this information-saturated era, audiences are already used to being told details in advance, so he decided to incorporate this phenomenon into his creative strategy. 
He also brought up the controversy surrounding The Last of Us Part II, where the character Joel was deliberately included in non-existent scenes, leading to strong player backlash.
Kojima stated that games should offer a different experience from movies and novels: "What I want is for players to spend 60 hours experiencing the game, and at the end, discover that it perfectly matches the happy ending they initially expected. This is a design, and I chose to achieve it by gradually releasing spoilers." 
Kojima emphasizes that this isn't simply "leaking plot points," but rather using spoilers to build anticipation, allowing players to navigate the game with a tension between the "known" and the "unknown." For him, this strategy creates an interactive effect unlike traditional storytelling.
Currently, Death Stranding 2 has sparked heated discussions globally, not just for its gameplay and story, but also for Hideo Kojima's fresh take on "spoilers." Whether this marketing approach will reshape future game promotion remains to be seen.
via： The Washington Post