Hideo Kojima confirms Death Stranding PC release date with bizarre tweets

Kojima Productions had teased some kind of a reveal this week over social media, and despite some theories that it might relate to Hideo Kojima's infamously cancelled Silent Hills, the truth behind it all was the long-awaited PC release date for Death Stranding. The news comes with a surprising crossover with another beloved sci-fi series.

505 Games and Kojima Productions announced Monday that Death Stranding will be released on PC June 2, 2020 and that it'll come with some PC-exclusive features and content.

To start, Death Stranding will have a photo mode in the PC version. On the technical side of things, it'll boast a "high framerate" with ultrawide monitor support that'll be inherent to the PC version. All of this was highlighted in the latest trailer for Death Stranding included below.

The most interesting part of this PC port is what was teased at the very end of that trailer: the Half-Life cross-promotion.

That's right, Kojima Productions' PC port will feature some content that relates to the Half-Life franchise, which is making a resurgence next month with the release of Black Mesa and Half-Life: Alyx. The extent of the cross-promotion remains to be seen, but we know that Sam Porter Bridges will at least be able to sport headgear based on Half-Life's headcrab enemies.

Half-Life might be a Valve franchise, but 505 Games confirmed to Inverse that Half-Life content will be available for all PC versions of Death Stranding, including the Epic Games Store version.

While this Half-Life crossover is surprising, fans were hoping for something more shocking: Hideo Kojima reviving Silent Hills.

The above tweet was posted by Kojima Productions February 28 to mark the return of Head of Communications Aki Sato after a period of absence.

Fans speculated that this tweet was teasing an imminent Silent Hills-related reveal. Firstly, the tweet seemed to have been intentionally worded to use "silent" instead of a simpler phrase like "sorry for the silence." Secondly, if you zoom in closely to the pencil Sato is using, it has the word "pyramid" on it. Pyramid Head is the most iconic character from the Silent Hills franchise, so the fact that he was using a pencil with "pyramid" written on it fueled these theories even more.

Lastly, Sato wrote "next week" on the paper in front of him, teasing that an announcement was coming soon. The tweet's replies are full of people freaking out the possibility of Silent Hills coming back, whether it be Kojima Productions reviving the game entirely or if the Konami horror series might cross over with Death Stranding in some way.

There have been rumors that Konami might be looking to revive the Silent Hill franchise in some way, so this didn't seem too farfetched for many. But because the image indicates teased some kind of an announcement for this week, it seems like Sato was just referring to the announcement for the PC release date for Death Stranding and Half-Life crossover reveal.

The Inverse Analysis

While Kojima Productions working on Silent Hills once again would be one of the most shocking game announcements in recent memory, I doubt that will ever happen.

Even if Konami has mended its relationship with Kojima and wants to continue the Silent Hill series, the Japanese publisher will likely see P.T. and Silent Hills as a chapter of its history best left forgotten.

As for the actual announcement, I expected the PC version of Kojima's latest game to release sometime in June, but June 2 is still quite early when you consider the "summer" release window that was previously given by PC publisher 505 Games. The Half-Life crossover makes for a surprising addition and is just as weird as the time the franchise crossed over with Final Fantasy XV. The enhancements that the PC version of Death Stranding brings to the table may entice plenty of players, myself included, to replay the game.

Death Stranding is available now for PS4 and will be released for PC on June 2, 2020.