Hideo Kojima dropped a bomb on Twitter… A picture was posted with the Hypergryph team-the developers of Arknights-that sent the internet-on a collective frenzy! The obvious understatement for the internet would be to say it was losing its mind. The caption was very simple; “‘With everyone from Hypergryph and Ma-kun of KJP (second from the left).'” The reply section became pandemonium-gamers yelling, crying, vomiting-these are the things of an unexpected crossover but perhaps deep down they all desired it without really knowing themselves.
Now that we are here, just in case you really didn’t know, Hypergryph is the Chinese studio behind a gigantic commercially successful tower defense gacha game called Arknights. And “Ma-kun” is a nickname given to the studio director. Now, to see this very “Ma-kun” standing side-by-side with Hideo Kojima, the man behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding, felt like two gaming worlds colliding. Someone said, “What timeline is this?” perfectly capturing the sentiment.
The speculations of secret collaborations went into an immediate rampage. Just look at the replies. “Arknights x Death Stranding” repeated till someone’s ears hurt. The whole “Arknights Stranding” thing has been coined already, and the vibe is…it fits?? Think about it. Both games share this post-apocalyptic solitary tone of fitting people and places. With this in mind, it is not that crazy. DZwartts nailed it saying: “Arknight and Death Stranding literally has the same vibe I pray for this.” They’re not wrong.
And from this follows the theories by the minute. Some are convinced it has to do with the upcoming game Arknights: Endfield: Sombr016: “Arknights Endfield will be a strand type game,” hilarious but kind of genius. Others want Norman Reedus from Death Stranding to be introduced to Arknights all the way: “Endfield X Death Stranding, put Norman Reedus on Talos ASAP,” says Furinji Hayato. Why the hell not? Let him carry those packages in a dystopian furry-world.
One could almost taste the exhilaration in the air. One of them screamed in all caps in the replies, “OH MY GOD OH MYYYYYYY GODDDD.” Another one expressed it perfectly with smashed-symbol-shouting: “I’M GOING CRAZY HERE WHAT IS THIS?+++++??!-_(–_&&&-” that excess. Absolute mood. That feeling when two things you adore interject, and your brain short circuits. This is gaming culture at its finest.
“But wait, what was I saying. Oh yeah, the collaboration. Yet it’s not confirmed, really. Kojima might simply be holding a few drinks with his fellow developers. The community has spoken, and they’ve declared it true. Several users have been using a meme where a guy points to his head with the inscription ‘They are planning to do a collab with Hideo Kojima but i just can’t prove it.’ It has unofficially become a tagline for the entire affair. The people have spoken, and it would be negligent not to deliver at this point.”
Then comes the funny stuff, as usual. “Priestess feet soon,” somebody just dropped, which is…a reference, I suppose? Another user spotted a guy in the photo and went,”One of Walter’s Hounds?” referring to Armored Core VI. Gaming worlds are colliding through this image-it’s beautiful chaos.
What could this general collab be, then? Death Stranding-style deliveries, cargo hauling, plastic terrain, but in the world of Arknights. You’re a logistics operator at Rhodes Island, dodging Reunion patrols to deliver medicine to infected settlements. Or maybe an Arknights operator lands in Death Stranding’s America? Skadi v. BTs, triberoni screamed, “WE NEED SKADI IN DEATH STRANDING NOW.”
Then comes timing. Next to it is a good breaking-the-facts-about-Arknights: Endfield-whose-development-is-still-going-on-comment, under which it is more than likely that Kojima Productions is well underway in working on the bigger thing after Death Stranding 2. This collab could become the bridge that lends said quirky little time sink to both studios, with Kojima’s cinematically high concept storytelling rubber-banding against Hypergryph’s painfully deep world-building and character design.
Win or lose, whichever it is, this is just a meet’n greet or the start of some far bigger thing; that much is proven by the reaction alone. One thing for sure is that sheer stripped-down joy and hype all over the replies that connect us to this community. It’s a reminder of what video games do-connect-in-game, and more importantly-outside-the-game. So watch out because, if the two are indeed cooking something, it’s gonna be legendary. The strand type game is coming, and we’re not going to be asked if we are ready for it anymore.
