Death Stranding just launched on Xbox without warning

Well, that was certainly unexpected. Xbox fans woke up today to a brand new, formerly exclusive game for the PlayStation console in their store. That would be Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, which just released Stealth on Xbox Series X and S and is available now.

Death Stranding was previously available exclusively for the PS4 and PS5 consoles, but eventually also came to PC Game Pass and Steam. However, this is the first time the game has appeared on Xbox consoles. The game is also available at 50% off on Xbox ($20), making it even more attractive to purchase (no, this isn’t on Xbox Game Pass).

It seems no coincidence that this is happening at the exact moment Hideo Kojima announces that he now fully owns the IP for Death Stranding:

“In addition, KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS announced that the IP for this work will belong to the studio. They said they will continue to connect more fans around the world in various forms of entertainment.”

The obvious conclusion from all of this is that it is now very unlikely that Death Stranding 2 will be a PlayStation exclusive again, or at least not appear on Xbox at some point. It’s possible that Kojiima will sign some kind of time-limited exclusive deal with Sony, but it also seems even more likely that it’ll just be a day one release on both consoles and possibly PC too, like we see with most blockbusters from third parties. However, despite this DS1 port and IP ownership news, this has not yet been announced. Death Stranding 2 is scheduled to release in 2025, but we don’t have a specific date or window for it yet. It’s likely that more information about Death Stranding 2, either a release date or Xbox information, will be revealed at Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards in December, where Keighley always gives his friend plenty of screen time.

The Xbox partnership doesn’t come entirely out of the blue, considering Kojima announced almost a year ago that he would be developing a game with Xbox, currently called “OD.”

“We are collaborating with Xbox Game Studios and their cloud gaming technology to take on the challenge of creating a completely unique, immersive and entirely new style of gaming – or rather, a new form of media.”

As is well known, this was revealed with a photorealistic teaser trailer that shows stars Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schaffer and Udo Kier:

As for Death Stranding, it appears that the franchise now has a future ahead of it on both consoles.

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