Hideo Kojima and his studio Kojima Productions have announced that upcoming open-world epic Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has gone gold, and Kojima is celebrating with a time-honored Japanese custom.
Over on Bluesky, Kojima posted a picture of the Death Stranding 2: On the Beach gold master disk. In case you’re unaware, a gold master disk is the version of the game from which other copies are pressed, so Kojima’s post essentially means Death Stranding 2 is ready to ship.
Alongside the shot of the disk, Kojima also posted a picture of himself filling in the right eye of a Japanese daruma doll. Again, in case you’re not familiar with the custom, a daruma doll’s left eye is filled in when a goal is decided on, and the right eye is filled in when the goal is completed.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, it is, believe it or not, the sequel to 2019’s Death Stranding.
While a number of trailers have been released for Death Stranding 2, the game’s plot is characteristically abstract. It’ll pick up after the events of the first game and will ask the question “should we have connected?”, but the specifics and minutiae of the story are still unknown at the moment.
We also know that a number of characters will be returning from the first game, including Léa Seydoux’s Fragile, Troy Baker’s Higgs, and, of course, protagonist Sam Porter-Bridges, portrayed by the rather loose-lipped Norman Reedus.
They’ll join new additions to the cast like George Miller’s Tarman, Debra Wilson’s Doctor, and Luca Marinelli’s Neil, and we’ll get to find out how they fit into the story when Death Stranding 2 launches (although even then, given Kojima’s past form, that isn’t guaranteed).
Death Stranding 2 launches exclusively for PlayStation 5 on June 26th (although a version for PC will almost certainly arrive afterwards, if the first game is anything to go by).
