Death Stranding 2 coming exclusively to the PS5 on June 26th

It’s no secret that – despite the PS5’s excellent sales over the holiday season – Sony fans expect more of 2025 than what they got it 2024 in terms of AAA exclusive games… and the first such title is now officially dated. During a special SXSW panel streamed a few hours ago, Hideo Kojima announced that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will be out on June 26th exclusively for the PS5/PS5 Pro. It’s too early to tell whether it will also come to the Xbox and/or PC at some point in the future (its predecessor did), but since Sony Interactive Entertainment will be publishing the title it’s safe to assume that it won’t be coming to other platforms this year (timed exclusives rarely ever appear on competing formats in less than 6 months).

For those who loved the bizarre but moving story of Death Stranding, the trailer revealed at SXSW 2025 explains that Death Stranding 2 is set 11 months after the formation of the United Cities of America. Servers line the beach and deliveries have been automated – essentially rendering porters like Sam Bridges obsolete – but chiralium from the Beach continues to warp the environment and a new faction is spreading its influence. So Bridges is back in action, although details about who he’s actually working for are sketchy right now.

Death Stranding has been quite successful, if divisive, for Kojima Productions: many loved it as a well-written story, a spectacular audiovisual experience and an exceptional piece of movie/art direction, while others hated its core “walking simulator” mechanics, simplistic game loop and slow pacing. The game did get played by almost 20 million people on various formats though – PS4, PS5, PC and Xbox – since 2019, surpassing 10 million copies sold in 2022 (it’s been also made available through subscription services like PC Game Pass and PlayStation Plus).

It’s fair to say that millions of gamers are eager to return to the world of Death Stranding and – based on the SXSW 2025 extremely impressive trailer – it seems that Death Stranding 2 will be delivering a similar experience. The fact that this game’s Hollywood star power is second to none will not hurt either. Kojima Productions’ trailer reveals that Norman Reedus will return Sam Bridges, as will Lea Seydoux and Troy Baker as Fragile and Higgs respectively. They will be joined by new characters played by Elle Fanning (Tomorrow), Shioli Kutsuna (Rainy), George Miller (Tarman), Debra Wilson (Doctor), Alissa Jung (Lucy) and Luca Marinelli (Neil).

Pre-orders for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach are going live on March 17th. As per usual with productions such as these, it will be available in three different editions: the Digital Standard Edition (with some pre-order bonuses attached), the Digital Deluxe Edition (offering two-day early access to the game and a number of extra in-game items) as well as the Collector’s Edition (offering a number of physical items and everything else present in the Digital Deluxe Edition). Sony’s extensive post over at the official PlayStation blog has a detailed rundown of what’s on offer by each edition.

It’s worth noting that the Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Collector’s edition – costing $230 – does not contain a physical, disc-based version of the game… which one assumes that the regular, retail edition of the title will. What a time to be a video games collector, right?