Kojima Discusses Budget and Team Size Limitations for Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima shared that the inability to show the interiors of cities in Death Stranding and the choice to turn enemies into invisible entities were not creative decisions, but rather the result of a limited budget and team.

Hideo Kojima explained how the budget and team size directly impacted Death Stranding, including the decision not to let players see inside cities.

According to Kojima, he determines the game’s budget himself. Back at the concept stage, the team calculates the break-even point and the required number of sales. For example, they might decide in advance that if they sell one million copies, they will break even. At the same time, development is always built on a balance between the vision and available resources.

At the start of Death Stranding, the team had only four people, and later the staff did not even reach 30 employees. Therefore, creating fully realized cities and an RPG with a large number of characters was impossible. This is where isolated underground settlements and invisible enemies came from.

Kojima noted that players were not supposed to figure out the real reason behind these limitations, stating, “Wait, do they simply not have enough money?” Because of this, the cities were made visible from the outside, but players cannot go inside.

Managing the budget independently also allows for funds to be reallocated. By spending more on Mads Mikkelsen, the team could save on the environment or other roles.