Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release

Funny, it went from being ‘nothing but a boring walking simulator’ to cheers and toasts overnight.

So basically Sony hasn't put this game on Xbox out of the goodness of their hearts like people assumed, it's that they have very little if any say on it.

So much for people thinking Sony are going full publisher. People would be more likely to see live service games appear than anything single player from them on Xbox. If ever. Not even Lego Horizon went to Xbox despite going to Nintendo Switch.

@Balaam_
Exactly what I was thinking. Everyone on team green trashed it until it was announced for Xbox. Even though personally I've never had an interest in the game but it just goes to show.

@themightyant
For me that's another one too. Like Death Stranding I never had an interest in Starfield or played it. I'm very selective now how I spend my time within games and it didn't appeal to me. Personally I feel Bethesda's day in the spotlight is winding down. Ever since Skyrim they've been on the decline. FO76 for me was terrible, Fallout 4 was a fall from grace. The only game since Skyrim I even slightly liked was ESO. and yet I loved FO3.

I pre-ordered, and very much enjoyed it on the PS4. I have the Director's Cut on the PS5 though I cannot recall whether I paid for the upgrade or whether it was free, either way, I have not played it as yet.

Now that the game has released on my preferred platform, I have just bought it again, and it is currently installing! It's an absolute steal at £17.49, so it would be madness not to.

Really looking forward to dipping my toes back into those murky black waters, and getting by butt whooped once again, be it by the terrain, mountains or the strange creatures that rise from the depths..! 🤣

To those who haven’t played it and want to enjoy it.

Very marmite kind of game as you can tell through the comments.

@Balaam_ I did this for a few seconds as it was half price. Then remembered I had no desire to play it!

@themightyant

But I was more referring to fanboys who rubbish games when they think it's an exclusive only to about turn when it's released on their platform. You KNOW you see it plenty.

Oh yeah definitely, see it all the time. And it won't be the last. If a Sony single player game arrives it'll go from "I don't play Sony's interactive movies" to "omg best news ever!" 😮‍💨

@Balaam_ nope its still a boring game regardless of what platform its played on, for me at least & my preferences. Others folks can make up their own minds based on their preferences.

@Wisegamer

It's crazy to believe Sony isn't interested in this revenue; they're simply lagging behind. Xbox has been gradually transitioning to this model for years.

And yet they've bought a mobile porting studio, published select titles years later to PC and even porting to Nintendo. They only leave Xbox out because they have the least audience and most gamers have been conditioned into expecting everything on GamePass instead of buying, there are very few sales now. Which is why Phil Spencer has been complaining about some publisher's and developers who have been skipping Xbox entirely due to both that reason and the Series S parity. So you're comment isn't entirely accurate when there are some who happily don't publish/release on Xbox.

Great visually but so tedious and unenjoyable. I tried to like this game and gave it a fair shot but it just isn’t for me. I don’t really care for Kojima games at this point. Overrated.

I played this on PS5. Your main mission is to deliver packages. Beautiful graphics. Sounds boring, but I found it super addictive. Very fun game. It will be interesting to see if this sells on Xbox in light of people sticking largely to game pass not doing many purchases outside of it.

Totally disagree that Xbox gamers have been conditioned to expect games on the Game Pass, @GADG3Tx87. Totally! The only games that I, and I assume all other Xbox gamers, do expect, is for first-party games to enter the Game Pass. Anything, and I do mean literally anything, else that enters the Service is a bonus, and for the most part unexpected. Anything that is not first-party I expect to buy, which is exactly what I do.

As an example, I 100% expect the next Call of Duty to enter Game Pass. However, even though GTA5 has been on the Service, I do not expect to see GTA6 do it, though it may do 3 or 4 years after it releases if it follows suit with its predecessor.

If everyone was conditioned to expect everything will enter Game Pass, then absolutely nothing else would sell, which would mean that probably 99% of games released on the Xbox wouldn't sell any copies.

The term conditioned to expect everything is an absolute myth repeated ad infinitum by the Sony gamer, mostly when they viewed Game Pass with envy. It really, really is not true. Yes, there are people who will buy an Xbox in order to only utilise Game Pass, and won't buy anything on the Xbox, but that type of individual is most likely to own a PlayStation and buy most of their games there instead.

It's a myth. Truly, a myth...

@themightyant I get what you're saying and I think game pass has been really important, especially in the indy space. But @Fiendish-Beaver is right, this "conditioned to expect everything on game pass" is just repeated ad nauseum on so many forum and Reddit posts. Almost as if people have become conditioned to trot out the line itself!

I do both. GP for day 1 and Indys that are interesting, and buy games that I like. It's a good business model, certainly works well for me!

There is a big difference to needing to be on the Service and people expecting games to be on there, @themightyant. Take a look at the Xbox Store, then exclude first-party games, and then compare that to games coming to the Game Pass. There are way more games that are not coming to GP than are. Thus, unless none of those games are going to sell, then the myth holds no water.

I bought Calisto Protocol, and had no idea that it was going to enter Game Pass a while later. More than likely its reception led to that happening, but regardless, even if I had known that Calisto Protocol was going to enter the Game Pass, I would still have bought it. Without inside knowledge or an announcement, I think few people would have expected it to go to the Service, and would have bought it instead. Will there have been a bunch of people that wanted to play the game, but didn't until it entered Game Pass? Of course! However, finances, time and the games reception are the most likely reasons why they didn't play the game before it entered Game Pass, and the fact that it was a game that interested them that then entered a Service that they had already paid for, is why they would then have gone on to play it. I highly doubt that many people expected the game to go to Game Pass, and it certainly took me by surprise.

Funny thing is, from your list of Death's Door, Chants of Senaar, Lords of the Fallen, Calisto Protocol, and Atlas Fallen, the only game that I did not pre-order is Chants of Senaar. However, I would also add that I had no idea that any of these games would end up on Game Pass, and even if I had, I would have bought them anyway because I am an impatient gamer... 😉

If Sony had actually published this they would be benefitting from it but now they get no benefit and it’s on Xbox anyway. Should have got there first but 🤷‍♂️

@themightyant thanks for that link, it's a really good article. Interesting that smaller Devs cite similar problems caused by ps+, I never personally thought releasing on ps first was a guaranteed way towards revenue, it's much more likely that it's just the target platform for the bigger Devs.

So in summary, game pass good for consumers, but Devs now have to get creative or really think about where and how they want to sell. Rough times!

I'm praying for the whole Xbox/steam pc/console hybrid rumour mill to be true. No idea how the deal could work, but would be a dream for consumers and indy Devs 🙏

@Balaam_ Not true, there are plenty of people that love Kojima games. I still haven't bought a Series X, but the moment OD comes out (or Perfect Dark) It's a day 1 purchase for me.

I've loved Death Stranding from the moment I got to play it.

@GADG3Tx87 Same with Sea Of Thieves, team PlayStation used to trash that until it went to PlayStation.

@GADG3Tx87 “They only leave Xbox out because they have the least audience”

Xbox may have the least audience compared to PlayStation and Nintendo but it’s still in the many millions, there’s still money to be made by releasing games on Xbox.

Hope Xbox players enjoy the game as for me its one of the best games of last gen and the DC version was pretty sweet as well. I'm guessing the sequel will be a timed release on PS5 so it will no doubt hit Xbox at some point.

I have it on PS5 but I bought the Xbox version as it's on sale for 20 bucks. Excited to start all over again. Can't wait for 2.

I read that pastebin article, @themightyant, and it was interesting, if not, in my opinion, definitive. My three biggest takes from it were:

1. Where the Developer was talking about their game having sold just 5% of the sales on the Xbox, three things can be said about that. First, they put the game on the Xbox last, so people who may have bought the game on the Xbox may have bought it elsewhere first. Secondly, if the game reviewed badly elsewhere, people will have been less inclined to buy it once it did release on the Xbox, forewarned and what have you. And lastly, if the game was also put on the Game Pass, then it would obviously have impacted sales compared to elsewhere. Ultimately, if you treat the Xbox gamer as an afterthought, that is most likely how they will treat you.

2. The S and multiple Xbox consoles are a problem for the smaller developer because it takes a lot of work to optimise for more consoles. However, when I read this, it did strike me that in fairness, there is only one more console when compared to the PlayStation. Just as Xbox has the One, One X, and the Series consoles, by comparison the PlayStation has the 4, the 4 Pro, and the 5. The only difference is the S (and presumably the issues of parity). It almost seemed as if the Developer was looking for issues to cite, rather than being truthful about the issue.

3. The comment regarding more sales being on the PlayStation than on the Xbox was a real no sh*t Sherlock moment. I mean, there are more people that game on the PlayStation, so it absolutely follows that there would be more sales there.

Lastly, what I would say is that the behaviour of gamers on the PlayStation will be no different than on the Xbox. Roughly, the same percentage of people will pre-order a game, the same percentage will wait for the game to go on sale, and the same percentage will wait to see whether the game ends up on Game Pass or PlayStation Plus, and then there will be the same percentage that only game on the Game Pass and on PlayStation Plus. Thus, I do no believe that gamers on the Xbox are any more conditioned than the PlayStation gamer...

@Coletrain @Fiendish-Beaver Agreed! Developers make billions on Xbox besides Game Pass deals, as confirmed by Microsoft's yearly reports. I don't understand this obsession with "nobody buys Xbox games", "developers don't sell anything on Xbox" and "Xbox players only play on Game Pass". Some lies are spread across the internet and some people end up believing them as if they were facts, like some things that were rumours and once they were officially denied, they are unable to acknowledge that part of the story and still repeat the first (fake) part ad nauseum.

Nobody expects all third-party games on Game Pass. The thing I do and I recommend is playing third-party games first on Game Pass if they are available, because third-party games always leave the service. I have prioritised the Persona games, for instance.

@Balaam_ I haven't seen any Xbox fan here saying that this is a Fedex simulator and now being excited about it because it's on Xbox. There is only one comment I read with "Fedex", and that person is... consistent (bighead), never changes his mind.

Kojima breaking free from PlayStation's chains and shackles...he must feel great.

@Banjo- the persona games on GPU are such a great example of how it CAN work with enough effort.

Played 5 royal and 3 reload on GP, lo and behold I now own persona 4 with metaphor:refantazio on my wishlist for when I'm ready (got FF pixel remasters and death stranding to get through first now...those damn Xbox gamers not buying games!)

@Coletrain I also got the Pixel Remaster Collection on Xbox at launch! I pre-order digital games that I want to support specially. I have hundreds of games on Xbox and not that I expected that at first. According to Microsoft, the attach rate and activity are high on Xbox and I think it's because it's a great ecosystem with the best of console and the best of PC, including cross-play, cross-buy and free cross-save. Not as many consoles sold but dedicated players buying games and playing on Game Pass. That's better for the business than selling twice as many consoles and most people only buying two or three third-party games.

Regarding the Game Pass topic, even huge games like Persona 5 Royal, I did not have to rush them. Most third-party games stay on the service for one year and even if I spent a few months just playing one of them, it would still be much cheaper than buying them at launch, e.g., Persona 3 Reload + DLC (£$€100). But still, I buy Game Pass games. The only difference is that I don't have to.

I have played and bought games that I thought that I wouldn't like thanks to Game Pass. I believe Xbox when they say that Game Pass is beneficial to their whole business, because it boost the popularity and visibility of games. For instance, 52% of active Xbox players and 34% of active PS5 players in USA played Call of Duty Black Ops 6 at launch. Both were all-time highs for Call of Duty, but it's also breaking records on PC. Many users are playing it on Game Pass, but also bought the Vault Edition Upgrade. Many of them subscribed to Game Pass just to play the game and while perhaps not all of them will stay subscribed, some will buy the game and DLC if they unsubscribe. Game Pass and Play Anywhere is a win-win for players and for Xbox.

PS: Another user just posted elsewhere: "I use Game Pass to try before I buy and if I like something on Game Pass there's a 99% chance I'll buy it. It's also been great for me to find obscure indie games that I would never have even thought of playing or buying. I currently own over 800 games for my Series X and a huge amount of those purchases are because I got to play them first."

@Banjo- yeah it's insane really how often you can end up doom-scrolling about the state of Xbox, when in reality it gives the most flexibility for all types of players (excluding PC only players, Steam is amazing and I don't blame people for sticking with it.)

I do very similar to you. In fact, with P5R and P3:R I played a ton of shorter games at the same time. No burnout, guaranteed to have different experiences and always happy to purchase because things are such good value (especially with MS reward points, haven't paid full price for a game since joining Xbox in 2021.)

I was PS1 through 4, and whilst a lot of the games were excellent, I found myself regularly playing just one game at a time. It was really easy to get burned out on something like Horizon Zero Dawn (due to length and poor side missions) or TLOU2 (just generally dark tone throughout, minus the section with the semi-open structure), which is something I don't feel with Xbox. Subsequently, I play near daily, so my attach rate is now tonnes better!

@Coletrain Ha ha, yes, some articles attract that kind of users and end up having 300 comments, most of them by Xbox haters. Right, PC is the most flexible. I only have the PS4 as a Sony machine, but I realised that what I liked the most was available elsewhere.

Just 6.8% of PS5 sales are first-party. PS is the popular, casual console, except in Japan, funny enough, where it's becoming as popular as Xbox. Uncharted is fine, better as film than as game though and the only thing I remember now is the good voice acting and a few frustrating and poorly designed sections. I never liked The Last of Us in spite of liking horror, awful stealth sections and the most overrated Sony IP in my opinion, Horizon Zero Dawn is as beautiful as boring, Spider-Man is a cinematic one-time experience, God of War is fine if you like linear action...

On Xbox, there are many more first-party games I'm interested in and the flexibility, controller and ecosystem makes it the best place for the third-party library, so I naturally built up a huge collection after only being interested in Rare's games. It's the most consumer-friendly and the most flexible of the three. 😊