Death Stranding is officially coming to Xbox PC Game Pass on August 23, following recent speculation about the PlayStation console exclusive’s appearance on a Microsoft service.
Developer Kojima Productions and publisher 505 Games announced that the original version of Death Stranding (so not the upgraded director’s cut) will be available to Xbox PC Game Pass users at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern on August 23 (so 1am UK / 10am AEST on August 24).
“The original version of Hideo Kojima’s critically-acclaimed and genre-defying epic lands on the Microsoft ecosystem for the first time, available to audiences who are subscribed to the PC version of Xbox Game Pass,” the announcement reads.
Death Stranding originally launched as a PlayStation 4 exclusive back in 2019 before it arrived on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store the following year, and its Director’s Cut back in January 2022. This will be the game’s first appearance under the Microsoft umbrella, however, blurring the lines somewhat between the PlayStation and Xbox rivalry.
Kojima Productions is doing the same, however, as despite Death Stranding being published by Sony Interactive and being a PlayStation console exclusive, the studio’s next game will be an Xbox exclusive. Some fans didn’t respond particularly well to the announcement, forcing Kojima Productions to clarify it still has a “very good partnership” with PlayStation.
There will likely be more Death Stranding eventually, however, as lead actor Norman Reedus leaked that a sequel to the 2019 stealth-action game is in development.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.