That PlayStation Experience panel took place last night and featured Kojima alongside several guests. Although Kojima didn’t confirm any plot details, he did reveal how the game is being developed, saying that Death Stranding uses the Decima games engine, which is the same one used by (Guerrilla Games’ PS4 exclusive) Horizon: Zero Dawn.
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Joined on the panel by Mark Cerny, who previously accompanied Kojima on a world tour for ‘high-end technology,’ and Guerrilla Games managing director Hermen Hulst, Kojima explained that Decima is “very appropriate to working on open worlds.” Cerny said that it took Kojima and him just a few weeks to decide upon a technology partner for Death Stranding and Kojima revealed that “from the first moment I met Guerrilla I had a good feeling about this.” In fact, Guerrilla even gave Kojima a copy of the Decima engine’s source code before the paperwork was signed and finalized.
Hulst also noted that a “small satellite” team from Kojima Productions is now based out of Guerilla’s Amsterdam office and that the Decima engine is “not just about rendering,” as “it involves AI, physics, logics, it’s got the entire world creation tool screen in it.” With both Horizon: Zero Dawn and Death Stranding running in 4K on PS4 Pro (the latter runs in 4K natively on the console) too, it seems that the Decima games engine is responsible for both games looking amazing as well.
Also during the panel, an alternative version of the new Death Stranding trailer was shown. The music in this version of the trailer is different to that of The Game Awards clip and Kojima stressed that the lyrics in particular are quite important. People have already put together their own trailer theories, including playing the Death Stranding trailers side by side to scour for clues and so fans are sure to be come up with more ideas about the game’s theme, its story and more based on this alternate, PlayStation Experience footage.
Death Stranding is currently in development for PS4.
