'Death Stranding' just dropped on Xbox — here’s why the internet is shocked

The video game industry made several surprise announcements this week.

In the midst of the U.S. presidential election, news broke that the Nintendo Switch 2 would be backwards compatible. A few days later, Death Stranding shadow launched on Xbox and the Windows PC game store, with a time-limited sale price of $20. That's a bit shocking because, for the last five years, Death Stranding has been a PlayStation console exclusive.

It did get a Steam release a while back courtesy of 505 Games, but as far as anyone knew, it wouldn't come to Xbox because PlayStation had published the game originally.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

That's not the case anymore. According to IGN (Disclaimer: IGN and Mashable are under the same parent company, Ziff Davis), Death Stranding developer Kojima Productions has seized control of the Death Stranding IP from Sony. Death Stranding is now theoretically open to a wider range of platforms. However, it’s worth noting that the upcoming sequel is being published by Sony and will launch exclusively on PS5, although it may not remain exclusive indefinitely.

If you never played Death Stranding, the perfect time was in 2020 when everyone was locked up inside, but the second best time is now. It's about a post-apocalyptic deliveryman braving the wastes of a ruined United States to bring people pizza and other basic goods. Death Stranding is equally as likely to provoke thoughts about isolation, emotional availability, and the gig economy as it is to make you laugh because you stumbled down a hillside.

There's nothing else like it, for better or worse.