Hideo Kojima’s Absence
With an abundance of new Death Stranding footage during Sony’s E3 2018 Showcase, we were practically certain we’d hear from the man himself, Hideo Kojima, during the show. We sat through a banjo performance for The Last of Us Part II and a shakuhachi master set the stage of Ghost of Tsushima, but then we jumped right into Death Stranding with little to no fanfare. We soaked up an excellent new trailer, with bits of gameplay sprinkled throughout, but we didn’t hear from Kojima himself, not one iota.
While the developer did make an appearance during the E3 Coliseum 2018 talks as part of his own panel with director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, his attendance during Sony’s presentation, especially with a new look at Death Stranding on offer, was sorely missed. We were desperately hoping to hear more insights on some of the story, mechanics, and other aspects of the game from the visionary developer of the Metal Gear Solid series, but instead, we got no introduction to the footage, nor any follow-up from Kojima to help us digest it. Kojima is always a welcome addition to any conference, and we would have loved to have seen his ear-to-ear grin present the first deep-dive into Death Stranding.