Death Stranding unexpectedly hits Xbox Series X/S

Xbox Series X/S owners (and Amazon Luna+ subscribers) can now spend dozens of hours scratching their head while playing Death Stranding. Hideo Kojima’s baffling walking sim has just hit those platforms without prior notice on its fifth anniversary.

To mark the occasion, Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is 50 percent off on Xbox, PC, iPhone, iPad and Mac. The discount isn’t available on PlayStation, where the game debuted all the way back in 2019 (Sony is the publisher on PlayStation, while 505 Games handled duties on other platforms). The base game is on the PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers.

Amazon Prime members will also be able to stream the Director’s Cut edition on Luna at no extra cost throughout December. You can keep going on Luna+ in the new year.

In Death Stranding, you play as Sam Porter Bridges, a courier of sorts who aims to reconnect America’s remaining survivors after a cataclysmic event that blurs the plane of existence between the living and the dead. Oh, and Bridges carries around an unborn fetus in a bottle that can detect creatures from the land of the dead. It’s all very strange and still one of the most memorable gaming experiences of the last decade.

Alongside the surprise Xbox (and Luna+ release) and anniversary discount, developer Kojima Productions had some other news about the franchise. It now fully owns the Death Stranding intellectual property. Sony, which financed the original game, previously held a stake and owned the trademark.

A sequel to Death Stranding is in the works. It’ll be a Sony-published PS5 exclusive at the outset and it’s slated to arrive next year (it’s a fairly safe bet that we may see more at The Game Awards next month). A Death Stranding movie is also on the way, while Kojima Productions is working on other games, including Xbox horror title OD and an action-espionage game for PlayStation.