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Hideo Kojima is a luxury brandHis final “handmade” Death Stranding trailer is out now
His final “handmade” Death Stranding trailer is out now
Hideo Kojima has been tweeting about the final trailer forDeath Stranding: Director’s Cutfor weeks now. He wants you to know that it was “self-edited”, “handmade”, that heobsessed over it. He sounds more like someone selling artisinally roasted coffee beans than a Sony-funded blockbuster that contains Monster Energy product placement.
The trailer is out now and you can watch it below.
DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT - FINAL Trailer - [ESRB] 4KWatch on YouTube
DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT - FINAL Trailer - [ESRB] 4K
In 2013, music critic Matthew Perpetua madethe same observation about Justin Timberlake. Perpetua argued that Timberlake was positioning himself as “an upscale pop star”, someone who “emphasized his craft and artistry” and aimed to transcend the charts to become someone who doesn’t “necessarily need hits because they’ve ascended to a realm of quasi-royal celebrity.”
The consequence is that Kojima’s banal tweetsare news, and also that he only ever seems a few days away from making a YouTube video about his latest office refurb in which he attempts to sell you a Grovemade desk pad. But it also means he can make a trailer like the one above, a nearly five minute-long music video packed with abstract imagery that offers almost no coherent sense of whatDeath Strandingis.
It helps that Death Stranding has been out for a couple of years. We aleady know what it is, and it is great. Its expanse of seemingly incoherent ideas ispartof why Death Stranding is great. But this trailer’s commitment to artistry over concise explanation is also - just like this re-release with a new kart racing mini-game being called a “Director’s Cut” - working to further Kojima’s brand as an artiste. What does it matter that Death Stranding sold substantially fewer copies than many of its Sony-published peers? Kojima has trancended the charts to become videogame’s first upscale game director.
