The creator of Death Stranding, Kojima somewhat expected to have critique towards his game, but he still had a statement that might have been low…

„I must say that the game received rave reviews, especially in Europe and Japan. Here in the United States, however, we have had stronger criticisms. Perhaps it is a difficult game to understand for a certain type of critic and audience. Americans are great fans of first-person shooters and Death Stranding isn’t one, it flies higher. I always try to create new things and disputes and discussions are fine, but it must be said that the Italians or the French have a different artistic sensibility that allows them to appreciate this kind of very original product, not only in video games but also in cinema,” Kojima told TGCOM24, an Italian publication. (Interestingly, the TGCOM24 news channel’s owner Mediaset still has a controlling stake by its founder, the former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.) So Kojima had a jab at action games, not to mention the American audience (whether it is a reviewer or just a player), while unsurprisingly, he praised the Italians (and the French).

He also talked about how he wants to make Kojima Productions an AA team (something that Ninja Theory was before their Microsoft acquisition – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was bigger than an indie title, but not as large-scale or expensive as an AAA game): „It’s a bit of a challenge between independents and blockbusters, I want to be in the middle and take the positive things of both these worlds. It happens that some very authorial games are sold maybe only in Japan and leave with a low budget. But when they try to propose themselves abroad, to become international products, they lose their soul a little as the creative director’s imprint slowly disappears. The larger the project becomes, the more the creative face disappears, which also applies to Western games.”

The European success isn’t that big, either: Gamesindustry says that Death Stranding is the second biggest PlayStation 4 launch this year. Days Gone sold 36% more (physical only, mind you) units (roughly 72 thousand) in the United Kingdom than of Kojima Productions’ game (46 thousand). However, the digital sales were not included, so we should wait until early December when NPD Group reveals the American best-sellers in November, and the same goes for Sony with the PlayStation Store chart. By then, we can have a clear sight of how well Kojima’s game sells (unless they reveal some official figures earlier).

Source: WCCFTech, WCCFTech

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