Death Stranding 2 on the way to PC faster; Sony on the rise

The PS5 exclusive, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, is expected to arrive on PC sooner than expected, after receiving an age rating from the ESRB. The title was released for PS5 in July of this year, and the rating comes just five months later, suggesting a shorter release window in comparison to the original game.

The first Death Stranding arrived on PS4 in November 2019, with the PC version released eight months later, in July 2020. The Director's Cut release also followed a similar pattern, arriving on PS5 in September 2021 and on PC in March 2022.

The shift to faster ports reflects Sony's growing success in the PC market. The original Death Stranding proved to be popular on PC, with 505 Games earning £20 million in half a year — the publisher's highest revenue in 2020, overtaking Control from Remedy. The combined sales of the PS4 and PC versions of the original title reached 5 million copies in July 2021. In November 2022, Kojima Productions stated that over 10 million players had played the game on all platforms.

Sony's success on PC continued with Helldivers 2, which became the fastest-selling PlayStation game of all time on PC and PS5 last year, with 12 million copies sold. Another example is Stellar Blade from Shift Up, which outsold titles like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and Marvel's Spider-Man, achieving the best performance ever for a single-player PlayStation exclusive on PC, according to the company.

Although the ESRB does not mention the publisher for Death Stranding 2, previous PC versions were published by 505 Games. There is no information about the development of a Director's Cut for the sequel. Kojima has already stated that he has a concept for Death Stranding 3, but he himself will not produce it.