It came to light that Nintendo’s subsidiary, Nintendo Pictures, contributed to the production of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
Death Stranding 2’s early access began on June 24, with the official release scheduled for tomorrow, June 26. Critics everywhere praise the game (okay, not all of them…), saying it is one of the strongest contenders for the Game of the Year award. Just like its predecessor, the game is a PlayStation exclusive, but as it turns out, it had some major help from a quite unexpected source.
Nintendo Pictures Helped Make Death Stranding 2
As revealed in the game’s credits and noticed by VGC, Nintendo Pictures assisted with CG animation and motion capture for the PS5 title. While Nintendo acquired the company in 2022, known at the time as Dynamo Pictures, it retained a degree of independence and had worked on the original Death Stranding and continues to support both Nintendo and non-Nintendo projects.
Naturally, the primary goal of Nintendo Pictures is to support their parent company and their projects. So, their involvement in Death Stranding 2, a Sony PlayStation exclusive game, definitely raises some eyebrows, especially considering the historic rivalry between Nintendo and Sony. Does this mean that AAA developers are paying less and less attention to platform “boundaries”?
Both yes and no! Nintendo isn’t suddenly jumping into PlayStation exclusives and vice versa. But it does show that studios like Kojima Productions value proven collaborators, even if they now fly under the flag of a competitor. And for Nintendo Pictures, it proves their creative capabilities extend far beyond Nintendo’s IP, like Mario and Zelda. We expect to see more collaborations like this, even between brands we once thought of as rivals, which will surely improve the game development as a whole in the future.
