Hideo Kojima loves to drop little references to Hideo Kojima in his games – and Death Stranding 2 is no different – but he's admitted that it's all him, and that his team at Kojima Productions won't humor him.

On The Beach is full of fun references to both the man himself and his self-named studio, but according to him, they were all personally added.

For Kojima, those experiences led to a different approach for the sequel. His own sense of isolation that arose from having to develop Death Stranding 2 with a remote team saw him reconsidering its tale — yet it’s also this isolation that led to Kojima realizing the perils of digital connectivity.