Ongoing development of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has director Hideo Kojima saying that he is feeling exhausted. Perhaps now more than ever, Kojima and those at Kojima Productions are incredibly busy. Not only is the studio trying to complete its work on Death Stranding 2, which is slated to release later in 2025, but it’s also juggling work on two additional games in OD and Physint. With so much happening at a single time, Kojima has opened up about how tired he is feeling.

In a series of messages on X, Kojima provided fans with some insight into the current development of Death Stranding 2. Kojima said that work on Death Stranding 2 has entered the “crunch” phase, which has resulted in the director needing to tackle multiple things at a single time. As a result, Kojima acknowledged that this portion of development is always “incredibly tough” and has left him feeling physically and mentally drained.

“The most demanding period of game development—both physically and mentally—commonly known as ‘crunch time,’” Kojima said. “On top of mixing and Japanese voice recording, there’s an inevitable pile of other tasks: writing comments, explanations, essays, interviews, discussions, and non-game-related work. It’s incredibly tough.”

In response to this statement, Kojima was met with a litany of replies from fans who encouraged the director to take care of himself. Others tried to remind Kojima that Death Stranding 2 is (seemingly) approaching the finish line, which means that he shouldn’t have to be in this phase of development much longer. As for Kojima, he went on to say that he watched a movie after his long work day which left him feeling “cleansed.” Even if this was just a brief respite from crunching on Death Stranding 2, finding a moment to relax seemingly re-energized Kojima just a bit.