Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is Seemingly in the Crunch Phase

gamingbolt.com:

Development on Death Stranding 2: On the Beach seems to now be in its crunch phase. Studio boss Hideo Kojima took to social media platform X to talk about how the game is in its most demanding period of development.

In his post, Kojima refers to the game’s development as being physical and mentally demanding, calling it crunch time. He also goes on to mention that, at this point, Kojima Productions is working on a host of different things, ranging from mixing Japanese voice recording to working on interviews, discussions, essays, and even non-game-related work.

“The most demanding period of game development—both physically and mentally—commonly known as “crunch time”,” wrote Kojima. “On top of mixing and Japanese voice recording, there’s an inevitable pile of other tasks: writing comments, explanations, essays, interviews, discussions, and non-game-related work. It’s incredibly tough.”

The game development industry is hardly a stranger to the concepts of crunch time, with the release of plenty of AAA titles having involved its developers on working overtime to try and hit deadlines. Crunch time, however, is widely looked down upon, since it often ends up forcing developers working on these titles to forego other important aspects of their lives, with several developers in the past having been burnt out, and ultimately, having left the industry altogether.

While we may not know all the details about the development and production of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Kojima had revealed back in May 2024 that filming and recording for the game had been wrapped up, and that the title was in its “adjustment phase”.

Kojima Production revealed the Japanese voice cast for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach back in September. Among the cast are several actors reprising their roles from the original Death Stranding, including Kenjiro Tsuda once again playing the role of protagonist Sam Porter Bridges. The game will also feature Nana Mizuki as Fragile, and Satoshi Mikami as Higgs.