# Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is an upcoming 2025 action-adventure game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is the sequel to Death Stranding, and is written, produced, and directed by Hideo Kojima. It is also the second game of Kojima Productions as an independent entity and the studio's second collaboration with Sony. The title features the previous game's central characters, including Sam Porter Bridges, Fragile, and Higgs, reprised by Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, and Troy Baker, respectively. They are joined by new characters, Tomorrow (Elle Fanning), Rainy (Shioli Kutsuna), and Neil (Luca Marinelli). The game features the likenesses of Mad Max co-creator George Miller as Tarman, Turkish-German director Fatih Akin as Dollman, and Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn as Heartman, the latter reprising his role from the first game.
Kojima began writing the game's sequel some time prior to 2020, but reworked his narrative from scratch to reflect the effect of COVID-19 on the worldwide population. After the story was completed, hints of Death Stranding launching a new franchise for Kojima Productions had been insinuated, before the sequel game was confirmed as in development by Reedus in May 2022. The game was officially announced in December 2022 alongside the confirmation of the new cast members' involvement.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is set to release for the PlayStation 5 on June 26, 2025.

## Development and marketing

In March 2020, Norman Reedus, who played the game's main playable protagonist Sam Porter Bridges, alluded to the possibility of continued collaboration with Hideo Kojima, who wrote, directed, produced and primarily designed the game for more content related to Death Stranding.
The sequel game was revealed to be in development in May 2022, when Reedus participated in an interview with the outlet Leo Edit to discuss his work on the game. In response, Kojima would post a series of photos on Twitter, cheekily depicting him punishing Reedus for confirming the game's existence. In October, following a series of teases made by Kojima on social media, Elle Fanning was announced to join the cast for an upcoming Kojima Productions game.
Kojima unveiled the game at the Game Awards 2022. He shared that he had written the game's original story sometime prior to 2020, but decided to rework the narrative when faced with new story concepts that reflected the impact of COVID-19 on the rest of the world. The trailer additionally confirmed that Léa Seydoux and Troy Baker would reprise their roles as Fragile and Higgs from the first game, and that Fanning would appear in an undisclosed role. Shioli Kutsuna was also announced to have joined the cast. Artist and mechanical designer Yoji Shinkawa and composer Ludvig Forsell were also confirmed to reprise their respective duties from the first game.
During the January 2024 PlayStation State of Play, Kojima revealed in a 10-minute trailer new information about the game such as Fanning's character, special appearances by George Miller/Marty Rhone as Tarman and Fatih Akin/Jonathan Roumie as Dollman, as well as new gameplay. Filming and motion capture were completed by May 2024, with Kojima adding that the game was in an "adjustment phase" that will take about a year to complete.
The game's release date was officially announced with a trailer on 9 March, 2025. The trailer revealed the reprisal of Nicolas Winding Refn/Darren Jacobs as Heartman from the first game, the new castings of Luca Marinelli as Neil, Alissa Jung as Lucy, Alastair Duncan as The President, and Debra Wilson as Doctor, as well as Woodkid's role as co-composer of the game's soundtrack.

## Release

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is set to release for the PlayStation 5 on June 26, 2025. Special edition versions grant in-game and physical items, with pre-orders of these versions offer bonus digital items and early access to the game two days before its official release.

## Awards

Death Stranding 2 was nominated for the Most Wanted Game at the Golden Joystick Awards in 2023. It was also nominated for the Most Anticipated Game at the Game Awards in 2024.