Death Stranding on Xbox – A Hint at our Multiplat Future

Death Stranding has shadow dropped on Xbox today at the immensely affordable price of £17.50.  Buy it. It’s awesome. It’s also an interesting look at things to come.

The biggest PlayStation fans are going to quickly point out that this isn’t a big deal. It’s five years old, they’ll say. Besides, Kojima has bought the rights back, so Death Stranding isn’t even owned by PlayStation. This new release is published by 505 Games too, just like the version that ended up on Game Pass.

And that’s all very true. If you ignore the work it took to get the (Sony owned) Decima engine working on Xbox, and the fact that Sony very likely could’ve stopped a wider multiplatform release if it had a mind to, then this is all very open and shut. This is “Different™”. Just like MLB: The Show.

Talk to me when God of War is launching on Xbox, right? Or Spider-Man.

I’m not going to seriously argue any of that. In the wide sprawling world of intellectual property rights, there are a million reasons why these things happen. It’s not Indiana Jones and Sea of Thieves on PlayStation. Not yet. Realistically, it never will be. If you’re holding out for some tit-for-tat controversy, don’t get your hopes up. Sony aren’t going to announce Horizon: Zero Dawn is coming to rival consoles any time soon. Hell, they’re barely bringing their games to PC. The way they’re doing it is to their detriment.

And yet things are still coming. And in all honesty, Death Stranding on Xbox might be the first step towards a new revenue stream for Sony.

Bringing Death Stranding to Xbox

Because as of this moment, all we know is that these things are true:

1. The engine that runs Horizon works for Xbox (and someone had to make that happen).
2. Sony is open to multi-platform releases, as evidenced by Lego Horizon on Switch.
3. Games are getting harder and more expensive to make, and getting them in front of people where they are is more important than ever. If you want the kids to get into your games, you don’t lock them to a single console.

Death Stranding may sell brilliantly. The engine reportedly runs like a dream on Microsoft’s consoles. If I were Sony, I’d be sitting up and paying attention. If there’s money to be made here – and there is – what are the downsides? Will a release so long after the fact really water down the PlayStation brand?

If you’ve just snorted derisively, then I’m with you. It’s a ridiculous notion. It doesn’t water the brand down anymore than releasing on PC. More people playing and enjoying these titles is only a good thing. Most fans see that. I’m sure most the executives at Sony see that too, when all is said and done.

I’m not saying Death Stranding is the first drip as the floodgates open. As I said above, there are extenuating circumstances. Besides, those floodgates are rusted shut at this point, letting out only the occasional PC port. But in five years, or maybe a decade, when we’re playing God of War on our Nintendo Switch consoles (Switch 2 still won’t have been announced), someone will point to this release and say “from here on, it all just made sense.”