Hideo Kojima plays Death Stranding regularly as development enters “key time”

Death Stranding’s development has entered into a major new phase.

Over the weekend, Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima posted a tweet to update fans on development progress. The tweet is entirely in Japanese, but it revealed that the game has entered into a key time in its development.

DSはまだ難度調整やデバック段階ではなく、ツールや開発機上で出来たバラバラのパーツをひとつのゲームに組み上げていっているところ。PS4の実機で毎日、実際に僕がゲームを直接プレイしながら、パーツを繋げ、操作感や演出、仕様、不具合を修正、肉付けと削ぎ落としをしている過程。重要なフェーズ🌈 pic.twitter.com/h30KIec9q0

— 小島秀夫 (@Kojima_Hideo) March 24, 2019

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Following Kojima’s tweet, Kojima Productions communications manager Aki Saito clarified the tweet’s message in English. “Death Stranding is not in its debugging stage, but combing all the game elements formed in the development tools into the game,” said Saito in a followup tweet.

“So everyday, Hideo’s playing the game on PS4, connecting, adjusting. It’s adding and taking out things at the same time. Key time in the development!”

In a recent interview, Kojima divulged that the game’s development is slightly behind schedule without getting into details. Death Stranding, of course, does not yet have a release date – or even a target window.

Seeing as Sony is skipping this year’s E3, it may be a while before we see a new trailer, or hear some new details.