{"id":1201673,"date":"2026-02-19T12:58:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/QGtWDMqFm6edSYymuMSEUV"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:58:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:58:52","slug":"hideo-kojima-says-most-death-stranding-playtesters-told-him-it-was-a-terrible-game-and-hes-a-little-bummed-death-stranding-2-is-testing-way-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/hideo-kojima-says-most-death-stranding-playtesters-told-him-it-was-a-terrible-game-and-hes-a-little-bummed-death-stranding-2-is-testing-way-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Hideo Kojima says most Death Stranding playtesters told him &#8216;it was a terrible game,&#8217; and he&#8217;s a little bummed Death Stranding 2 is testing way better"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>No matter what reactions a Hideo Kojima game elicits from you, we can all appreciate swinging for the fences. Death Stranding is the sort of game that, in our profoundly risk-averse business, should have never gotten the sizable Sony-backed budget it did, but such is the power of Kojima&#8217;s name.<\/p>\n<p>Still, I have to imagine someone at Sony broke a sweat when they learned they were funding a delivery simulator that&#8217;s light on action and heavy on contemplative vistas, especially considering how the first Death Stranding tested before it came out. In a recent interview with Edge Magazine (as shared by <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesradar.com\/games\/action\/hideo-kojima-says-60-percent-of-death-stranding-playtesters-thought-it-was-a-terrible-game-but-he-thinks-thats-a-good-balance\/\">GamesRadar<\/a>), Kojima revealed that most playtesters were repulsed by his post-Konami debut.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I did a lot of monitoring tests for the first Death Stranding. I&#8217;d find that four out of ten people would love the game, and six would say it was a terrible game,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>They weren&#8217;t mixed, and they did not find redeeming qualities in Death Stranding&#8217;s cool gadgets or cooler peeing mechanic\u201460% of testers <em>hated <\/em>it. That&#8217;s the sort of feedback that&#8217;d have me hammering backspace and starting all over, but Kojima went on to say that 40% approval is &#8220;a good balance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Noting that big studio movies often require 80% approval before releasing, Kojima said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to make games like that. I&#8217;m not interested in appealing to the mass market, or selling millions of copies. That&#8217;s not what I&#8217;m aiming for.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, he seems disappointed that those same playtests for Death Stranding 2 are way more positive, to the extent that he wishes &#8220;it was a bit more controversial.&#8221; Sounds backward, but I know what he&#8217;s getting at. The first Death Stranding relished in its inscrutability, what with all the Beached Things jargon and its slow-paced, sometimes hardcore hiking gameplay. It was the last thing you&#8217;d expect from your favorite director of stealth action games.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:1920px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"B2fmATu9VBznWVKj3KqyJA\" name=\"deathstranding.jpg\" alt=\"Free Epic games \u2014 In Death Stranding, protagonist \"Sam\" Porter Bridges crosses a lake towards a misty hillscape, riding atop a transport drone.\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/hideo-kojima-says-most-death-stranding-playtesters-told-him-it-was-a-terrible-game-and-hes-a-little-bummed-death-stranding-2-is-testing-way-better.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: Kojima Productions)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It&#8217;s a testament to creative independence that Death Stranding came out, was as divisive as playtesters warned, but still found an audience, most of whom weren&#8217;t looking for a post-apocalyptic hiking simulator. I did not know that I&#8217;d want to spend 200 hours scanning a mountain looking for the least treacherous rock to step on until such an opportunity arose. And despite Kojima&#8217;s wishes, it did lead to selling millions of copies (which he must not mind, considering it earned him another big budget to make what he wants).<\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/death-stranding-2-sounds-like-everything-i-hoped-itd-be\/\">almost universally positive buzz around Death Stranding 2<\/a> might have Kojima worried he&#8217;s made an incremental sequel\u2014more of what people liked, but not as unexpected or surprising as the original. More of the same (but better) is exactly what I want out of Death Stranding 2.<\/p>\n<p>He might not admit to caring about the mass market, but he clearly cares about satisfying fans. The Metal Gear creator&#8217;s career is one of balancing expectations with experimentation\u2014a struggle that he&#8217;s worn on his sleeve for decades.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/action\/hideo-kojima-says-most-death-stranding-playtesters-told-him-it-was-a-terrible-game-and-hes-a-little-bummed-death-stranding-2-is-testing-way-better\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No matter what reactions a Hideo Kojima game elicits from you, we can all appreciate swinging for the fences. Death Stranding is the sort of game that, in our profoundly risk-averse business, should have never gotten the sizable Sony-backed budget it did, but such is the power of Kojima&#8217;s name. Still, I have to imagine someone at Sony broke a sweat when they learned they were funding a delivery simulator that&#8217;s light on action and heavy on contemplative vistas, especially considering how the first Death Stranding tested before it came out. In a recent interview with Edge Magazine (as shared by GamesRadar), Kojima revealed that most playtesters were repulsed by his post-Konami debut. &#8220;I did a lot of monitoring tests for the first Death Stranding.&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/hideo-kojima-says-most-death-stranding-playtesters-told-him-it-was-a-terrible-game-and-hes-a-little-bummed-death-stranding-2-is-testing-way-better\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1201674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[23,748],"class_list":["post-1201673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-action","tag-games"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hideo Kojima says most Death Stranding playtesters told him &#039;it was a terrible game,&#039; and he&#039;s a little bummed Death Stranding 2 is testing way better | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No matter what reactions a Hideo Kojima game elicits from you, we can all appreciate swinging for the fences. 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