Death Stranding skipping E3 2017 (update)

Death Stranding, the first game from Hideo Kojima’s new studio Kojima Productions, will not make an appearance at E3 2017, he announced today.

“Apologies to our fans, Death Stranding will not be @ E3 as we are fully focused on development,” Kojima said in a tweet this morning.

Kojima himself will appear at E3. He used his tweet to mention that he will be doing an E3 Coliseum panel with Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the director of Kong: Skull Island, who is working on a film adaptation of the Metal Gear Solid franchise.

The E3 Coliseum, which was put together by The Game Awards producer Geoff Keighley in partnership with the organization behind E3, is a two-day series of panels and presentations by the games industry and figures from the larger entertainment world. Kojima’s one-on-one talk with Vogt-Roberts is scheduled for 3:15-4:15 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, June 14.

Kojima’s tweet included one more thing: a new poster for Death Stranding. We’re not sure what the term “Bridges” means in the context of the game, and the spiderweb imagery is also confounding — but as with any Kojima project, let the speculation begin. Death Stranding is in development exclusively on PlayStation 4; it does not have a release window yet.

Update: It turns out that both “Bridges” and the spiderweb imagery previously appeared in the Death Stranding trailer from The Game Awards 2016.

Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment

The trailer featured film director Guillermo del Toro, and his character was wearing a lapel pin with an interesting symbol on it: an image of the 48 contiguous U.S. states, with a spiderweb spreading outward from the vicinity of Washington, D.C. The pin bears the word “BRIDGES” — in the same font as the new poster — and the phrase “United Cities of America.” You can see a close-up below.

Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment