“Well, I was already thinking about DS2 while I was making DS1. Whenever you're creating a new game or a new IP, it's difficult to establish a game system after just the first game.”
Kojima revealed in the episode broadcast just after announcing DS2 at The Game Awards 2022 that he was already thinking about DS2 while making DS1: when creating a new game or a new IP it is difficult to establish a game system with only the first entry — this was the same with Metal Gear and stealth, from which he learned — so he conceived the sequel with details already worked out while finishing the first. Three months after the release the COVID pandemic arrived and his prior script stopped making sense, so he rewrote it entirely because ideas from before COVID probably no longer work after COVID given what audiences have lived through, a judgment he believes creators across media share. He asked listeners to play with the teaser by speculating and commenting, urging them to use games as a topic of conversation and as an ingredient to create communication.
“So, for the first Death Stranding, I was already envisioning a sequel as I was making the first one. […] The last game was a rope game where you connected the divided, isolated people. Connecting was righteous. Then, the pandemic occurred. So now, the question is, what happens from here? And DS2 is all about that. […] Use games as topic of conversation. Use it as an ingredient to create communication.”