Det ble litt av et oppstyr da Hideo Kojimas samarbeid med Konami ble avsluttet etter lanseringen av Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, og Kojima Productions ble et selvstendig studio, som nå holder på med å ferdigstille Death Stranding. Det er deres første spill som et selvstendig studio, men de hadde flere ideer før de bestemte seg for å lage dette spillet.
I et intervju med Julien Chièze sier Kojima nemlig at dette andre mystiske prosjektet ble avlyst til fordel for Death Stranding.
"In 2016 we were a handful of people in a tiny office, and in June of the same year we started game design, casting without even knowing the whole game. It's like a marathon, where the middle is the hardest part. The start is easy, everyone is full of energy, then in the middle you cannot see the end, and it feels like there is no end, and it's a terribly draining. But honestly, the closer we get to the end, the more we see that arrival, which gives us extra strength. I had many ideas and concepts, but to be honest Death Stranding was not the first idea, it was literally the last. There was another game that I had to abandon and I will probably never come back to it. So that is how Death Stranding was born."