Despite being praised by critics (as you can read in our review), Death Stranding was not the commercial success that Kojima Productions or Sony hoped for it to be. Given the complexity of its themes that are intertwined in the game, it's not a surprise that the game wasn't a success, yet it seems that this flop has generated friction between Sony and Kojima Productions, at least according to a well-known insider.
According to the Dusk Golem (Aesthetic Gamer) via ResetEra, in fact, this failure has had a negative impact on the relationship between Sony and Kojima Productions for differences of opinion:
"Death Stranding was a flop. It sold well initially, but I've heard it has over 3 million unsold copies of what's been produced, but the sales kinda' slowed to a crawl and the game hasn't done as well as anyone involved has been hoping. Death Stranding was also originally supposed to be a very different game, a lot darker and more horror-esque, but around a year and a half before launch the development got soft rebooted. Sony and Kojima had some disagreements, and some other studios at Sony's Worldwide Studios were a bit upset at the money Kojima was getting for the game [...]".
To create further bitterness is the fact that Sony wanted the game to be a game for PlayStation 5:
"[...]along with disagreements lead to Death Stranding not ending up as a PS5 game and a sharper window for release even after the soft reboot. There's a looooot more here, but this is the part I'll share that's relevant.".
What do you think about Death Stranding?