Hideo Kojima Made Significant Changes To Death Stranding 2 Because Playtesters Thought It Was 'Too Good'

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach creator, Hideo Kojima, reportedly changed the game halfway through because playtesting results were "too good," and he doesn't want his work to be "mainstream."

The revelation comes from Yoann "Woodkid" Lemoine, who worked closely with Kojima on the upcoming game's soundtrack. Talking to Rolling Stone, Lemoine talked about his process — both with Kojima and without — and the challenges of writing music for a medium that's changing in real-time as players progress through the game.

Interestingly, he also reflected on Kojima opening up about the "problem" of having players "like [Death Stranding 2] too much." "That means something is wrong," Kojima told him. "We have to change something."

"There’s a key moment where we had a discussion, probably halfway [through] when we were doing the game, where he came to me and he said, 'We have a problem,'" Woodkid explained.

"Then he said, 'I’m going to be very honest, we have been testing the game with players and the results are too good. They like it too much. That means something is wrong; we have to change something.' And he changed stuff in the script and the way some crucial stuff [happens] in the game because he thought his work was not polarizing and not triggering enough emotions."

According to Kojima, "If everyone likes [your work], it means it’s mainstream. It means it’s conventional. It means it’s already pre-digested for people to like it."

"I don’t want that," Kojima reportedly told Lemoine. "I want people to end up liking things they didn’t like when they first encountered it, because that’s where you really end up loving something."

Woodkid added "that was really a lesson for [him]," convincing him "not doing stuff to please people, but to make them shift a little bit and move them."

Not long to go now — Death Stranding 2 is out on June 26, 2025. Hideo Kojima is also working on a live-action Death Stranding film with A24, and we recently learned that a Death Stranding anime is in the works, too. He's also working on a PlayStation exclusive action espionage project called Physint, and called the upcoming Xbox-published OD "a game I have always wanted to make."

Earlier this month, the U.S. Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) suggested Death Stranding 2 players will be able to bash stuff to death with a guitar.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.