Death Stranding will be coming to both Steam and the Epic Games Store simultaneously for its PC release. Publisher 505 Games made the announcement the same day the game was released for PlayStation 4. Since reviews started appearing on November 1, Death Stranding has been an unavoidable topic of conversation in gaming circles. One of the most divisive games in recent memory, Death Stranding has drawn both praise and criticism for its unique design choices, with elements that some consider genius being labeled flaws by others.
Screen Rant gave Death Stranding 5/5 stars, saying “Death Stranding delivered on its impossible promise in a breathtaking way.” Others have called the game pretentious and boring, while most reviews seem to land somewhere in the middle, expressing admiration for what Death Stranding tries to do, even if it doesn’t quite pull it off.
PC gamers will be able to decide for themselves what to think about Death Stranding next summer. Death Stranding’s summer 2020 PC release was confirmed late in October, but according to a press release from 505 Games, the game will be available on Steam and the Epic Games Store when it launches. Pre-orders for the PC version of the game went live today. There’s no word on whether the PC version of Death Stranding will differ from the console release in any way, but players with powerful enough PCs will presumably get the advantage of a graphical boost.
Whatever happens with the PC release, Death Stranding’s early performance on console alone has only solidified Hideo Kojima’s legacy as a one-of-a-kind game designer and secured the future of his new studio, Kojima Productions. Shortly after the game’s release, Kojima said that his studio would make movies in the future, something that the developer has talked about wanting to do for years. Death Stranding’s all-star cast and focus on character performances make it clear that the studio is already moving in that direction.
Given the recent brawls over exclusivity between Steam and the Epic Games Store, it may be somewhat surprising to see Death Stranding not only releasing on both platforms, but also doing so simultaneously. It’s possible that Kojima Productions’ close relationship with Sony could have prevented it from taking an exclusive deal with another platform holder, or simply made the extra funding that would have provided unnecessary. It’s just as likely that Kojima’s high profile played a part. Death Stranding is the first game from Kojima Productions after Kojima’s split from Konami, and that likely gave the developer a lot of power at the bargaining table.
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