Who is this ‘final’ six-minute Death Stranding 2 trailer actually for?

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is out today, not counting the early access period. Kojima Productions and publisher Sony couldn’t resist putting out one last trailer. I wouldn’t be surprised if the filename for it was something like DS2_FINAL_TRAILER_V17_noactuallyitsthelastone.mp4 and yet it still has a runtime of six minutes.

Although there are some fun moments in this trailer, it’s much too long. You probably shouldn’t watch it if you’d like to stay as spoiler-free as possible before playing the game, as the trailer includes some heavy-handed teases and perhaps gives away some of DS2‘s surprises.

The game’s director, Hideo Kojima, is a man with more ideas than he has time to execute. That’s evident in his games, which are packed full of complexity and cinematics. I found a YouTube video titled “Death Stranding 2 All Cutscenes Part 1″ that’s nearly two hours long. In other words, these games are a lot (though it is cute that there’s a special cutscene when it’s your birthday). Fittingly, the trailers are excessive as well.

By my count, we’ve now had over 30 minutes of DS2 trailers, including a 10-minute one. That’s not counting the 22-minute gameplay demo at Summer Game Fest. There will be more trailers when Death Stranding 2 inevitably migrates from the PS5 to other platforms, so I don’t believe for a second that this is the “final” one. Perhaps there will be a Director’s Cut edition with its own trailers.

Yes, studios, publishers and their marketing teams have a tough time on their hands trying to break through the noise and get their games on the radars of players who might want to check them out. But this is a Hideo Kojima game that Sony is publishing. A sequel to an acclaimed game that more than 20 million people have played. The vast majority of people who would be interested in Death Stranding 2 are likely already well aware of it. This probably didn’t need a final trailer, and certainly not one that’s six minutes long. (I am well aware of the irony that, by embedding it here, we’re bringing more eyeballs to this trailer. Don’t @ me.)

Kojima famously edits the trailers for his games himself, and he did so with this one. But they could probably do with another pass in someone else’s hands.