Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is coming to macOS, later this year. Hideo Kojima made a surprise appearance during Apple’s WWDC 2023 event, held early Monday, revealing that he’s not only bringing his genre-defying package-delivery game to Macs, but future titles developed by Kojima Productions will arrive on the platform as well. The news came shortly after Apple introduced two new features for the macOS — a Game Mode, which ensures all CPU and GPU resources are dedicated to the said application, alongside a Game Porting Toolkit, letting developers easily port games from other platforms.
“I have been a die-hard Apple fan since I bought my first Mac back in 1994,” Kojima said during the presentation. “It has been a dream of mine to see my team’s best work come to life on the Mac.” Of course, it relies on the Metal 3 graphics processing system to render Death Stranding’s near-realistic imagery, while taking advantage of the graphics fidelity offered by MetalFX Upscaling. While the technique is certainly visually appealing, I couldn’t help but notice how laggy the framerates were during the presentation, especially when the camera panned in tandem with the protagonist’s — Sam Porter Bridges — movement. I hope there are further graphical presets you could tweak in the settings, so you’re at least guaranteed a consistent 60 or even 30fps.
For now, Kojima hasn’t revealed a concrete release date for Death Stranding: Director’s Cut on the macOS but claimed that it will be available for pre-order on the Mac App Store soon. Even Steam sells macOS games on its platform, so we’ll have to wait and see if it pops up there as well, so players can take advantage of its seasonal sales. The last AAA game to be ported to Mac was Resident Evil Village, announced in 2022, for its gaming-focused Metal 3 API. That, however, continues to remain on Apple’s store, instead of being brought over to Steam. Hello Games’ popular space exploration and adventure title No Man’s Sky is also available on Macs and is listed on the Steam storefront on the platform.
For the time being, don’t expect any Metal Gear Solid games to arrive on the Mac since the IP remains under publisher Konami’s control. The only other confirmed project in Kojima Productions’ plans is Death Stranding 2, revealed at The Game Awards 2022, with a lengthy cinematic featuring an older Norman Reedus and co-star Léa Seydoux running away with a baby — or rather, BB. A Death Stranding movie is also in development with Barbarian producer Hammerstone Studios attached to it.
The original 2019 game followed Sam, a courier, who is tasked with reconnecting the last survivors of a post-apocalyptic America. There’s a lot to unpack here, starting with an open gateway which connects to the land of the dead, from where hostile creatures frequent the living world. Then there’s a bottled baby who helps detect the said tar-ridden BTs (enemies), so you can stealth around them, and a mysterious Beach flooded with dead, aquatic wildlife. Much of the gameplay is centred around walking and delivering items though, with long cinematics that serve as breakpoints.
Death Stranding: Director’s Cut will be out sometime later this year on macOS. It is currently available on PC, PS4, and PS5.