Would you play a Pokemon Go-like geospatial Death Stranding game with Smart Glasses and your phone? Hideo Kojima seems to think you will

Tonight, as part of the Kojima Productions 10th Anniversary livestream, called Beyond the Strand, we got a new update on the Death Stranding franchise. The stream promised to be “a celebratory event” that will include “special guest appearances as well as offer a glimpse into future projects,” and it certainly lived up to that promise.

The stream began with a quick recap of Kojima Industries’ history so far, from inception through to the announcement and launch of Death Stranding, Death Stranding 2, and the reveals of both OD (2023) and Physint (2024). Towards the end of the project, Guillermo del Toro, Geoff Keighley, George Miller and Mamoru Oshii took to the stage to talk about the future of entertainment, gaming, and art. Notably, all of the speakers talk about going ‘off-screen’ with storytelling.

Then John Hanke, founder of Pokemon Go developer Niantic and now boss of Niantic Spatial (an ‘AI-led geospatial business platform’), joined Kojima on-stage to present a section devoted to how Kojima plans to ‘move beyond the screen,’ where the Japanese developer envisions “going to the top of a mountain, and even finding entertainment there”.

There’s no real hint as to what this project will be beyond a fluffy teaser trailer that seems to be Pokemon Go-meets-Death Stranding. “Kojima Productions and Niantic Spatial Team Up to Redefine Immersive Entertainment” reads a blurb on the trailer, as people wonder around interacting with virtual bonsai trees, golden aura, and other weird environmental aspects. It all looks like stuff from the chiral network in the Death Stranding games, so I imagine our job – as porters via our phones or smart glasses, per the trailer – will be to connect things up.

You can see the latest trailer for Death Stranding x Niantic as part of the livestream below.

This seems like very early concept-level blue sky thinking. It’s worth noting that Niantic Spatial isn’t quite Pokemon Go developer Niantic: the company was split into a games and geospatial division earlier this year, with the gaming development arm going over to Monopoly Go maker Scopely in a deal worth $3.5bn.