The pandemic which began back in 2020 had major impacts on the development of many games and facets of life. One such game affected is Death Stranding 2.

Hideo Kojima said due to the pandemic and the events stemming from it, he ended up completely rewriting Death Stranding 2’s story. His reasoning was that a new story penned before such a major event wouldn’t have the same impact on players.

“It was the same with 9/11. Fiction changes when something that big happens. When something takes place that nobody thought was possible, works of fiction written before it become less effective as entertainment.” Kojima said to IGN.

Kojima elaborated a bit further: “That’s why I completely rewrote DS2 from its themes up as well. You can’t pretend that something this big never happened.”

“While the games themselves are based on characters who are not bound by our reality, the players themselves have gone through the pandemic,” Kojima said. “A story written before that experience just wouldn’t resonate with them in the same way, whether it was a fantasy story or a sci-fi one.”

He would also state that the pandemic had other impacts on the game’s development, such as casting and shooting of motion capture for the game, which he confirmed they had to do remotely.

Death Stranding 2 is expected to come out some time in the future for the PlayStation 5.