Sony’s Death Stranding Comes To PC Game Pass Next Week

In a most peculiar state of affairs, PlayStation console exclusive, Death Stranding, is coming to Microsoft’s PC Game Pass. Subscribers to the latter service will soon be able to fall over on a hill for no additional cost.

The news was announced by Microsoft via a neat tweet, showing a Sam “Porter Bridges”-a-like carrying a metal case across an airfield, sporting a sticker boasting “DEATH STRANDING – PC GAME PASS – AUGUST 23, 2022.”

2019’s Sony-published wobbly-man simulator has been available on PC for a couple of years, ported across eight months after its original release. That was via Italian publisher 505 Games, and it’s this company that has made the deal with Kojima Productions to see the game arrive on PC Game Pass.

Despite 505 also releasing a PC version of the Director’s Cut of Death Stranding this year, the game coming to Microsoft’s subscription service is described in a press release as “the original version of Hideo Kojima’s critically acclaimed and genre-defying epic.”

The game, about being Norman Reedus with labyrinthitis [sub: please check] who carries a baby inside his throat, is universally adored, featuring Kojima’s distinct, esoteric approach to game creation. It’s possibly the world’s most expensive walking simulator, as protagonist Sam Porter Bridges is tasked with transporting packages without banging them (or himself) up too bad. And of course, there’s a ton of wild supernatural shit going on. This is a Kojima game. The Game Pass version will support all that social loveliness of allowing you to indirectly support other players as you go.

Of course, it’s not coming to Xbox’s Game Pass. That’d be a fracture of reality too far, as the game has not (and likely will never) been released on Xbox consoles. It is, however, available on Sony’s recently relaunched PS Plus, where you can get both this original version and last year’s Director’s Cut as part of membership.

This all happens August 23, and it’s worth noting you can subscribe to PC Game Pass for a single dollar for the first month. So, you know, Death Stranding for a buck is a good deal! (Just don’t forget to set that reminder on your phone for a month’s time, to cancel the sub before it rolls over to full-price.)

You might imagine Sony is pissed, but it’s also worth remembering that the company has been making strides to push more of its content onto PC platforms lately.