Hideo Kojima showcased his first independent game, Death Stranding, during Sony's E3 2016 press conference. We have known that Kojima chose Sony as a key partner, with the PlayStation 4 version of the game being the first one to be released (though it will also launch on PC afterwards), but SCEE's European President Jim Ryan just offered some additional insight into this partnership in an interview conducted with VG247 at E3 2016.

　　First of all I’m not a studio guy, I’m a publisher suit. But my perspective on that would be if you try to place too many constraints on a free spirit like that it’s probably not a wise thing to do. But equally, clearly, with something like that there’s a significant investment on the part of Sony, and all of us who make those sort of decisions around that sort of investment are ultimately accountable to Sony shareholders. It’s a balance between allowing the creativity to flourish and recognising that we’re part of a business.

　　The main takeaway is that Sony is investing rather heavily even though it's "only" a console exclusive. Even so, they're not going to force Kojima one way or another, which completely fits Sony's usual modus operandi with their first party studios. It is doubtless that PlayStation exclusives in recent years were full of creativity leaps, even when they did not pay off in the end.

　　As for Death Stranding,  Kojima revealed in several interviews that it will be a different type of action game. In that regard, it will be not unlike Metal Gear which gave birth to the "stealth action" genre. The main character will be played by Norman Reedus, just like in the trailer (which is rendered in real time).

　　He then added that his team is very close to choosing an engine and once that's done, the game will enter full production. Still, chances are we won't get to play Death Stranding for at least two or three years.