Death Stranding Director’s Cut Is Not ‘Definitive’ Until You Spend More Money

In a recent State of Play, the director’s cut of Death Stranding was announced. However, it turns out you need a lot more money to get the definitive edition.

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is adding a lot of new content to the game, which sounds good on paper, except for the fact that you will have to buy the game again on PS4 without any upgrade option for existing owners. To top it, there is no such edition available for PC which received a port of the original Death Stranding.

If you want to enjoy this new content and have supported the original game by buying it, tough luck! You have no choice but to shell out $49.99 again just to enjoy the new story and gameplay additions that have been made to the game. However, ironically, this director’s cut version is not the definitive edition either.

Update: We apologize for the mistake of mentioning the lack of upgrade because we missed the blog post that detailed it. To be fair, there is no upgrade option right now and we still see the full price for the standard edition and director’s cut unlike Ghost of Tsushima.

Just to sneak in a slightly expensive price, Sony is also offering Death Stranding Digital Deluxe Edition that comes with a set of new bonus content. I mean, what is this behavior? Isn’t Director’s Cut supposed to be the definitive version of any game, just like the recent Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut?

According to the PlayStation Store, the following bonus content is listed for the Digital Deluxe Edition.

• Full game.
• Digital mini art book and mini soundtrack PlayStation®5 app.
• Avatar set.
• DEATH STRANDING Digital Deluxe Edition content.*
• New in-game suit colors x2 (gold and silver).*
• New in-game power glove colors x2 (gold and silver).*
• Additional in-game BB Pod customization options x2 (gold and silver).*
• Additional in-game backpack patches.*

While the additional new content is just for customization, it doesn’t make any sense to call an expanded version of the game as Director’s Cut and then sell a slightly more expensive Deluxe Edition. This undermines the value of the original version making fans feel like they are being an inferior version that lacks additional content when it should be the opposite otherwise.

If we compare this Director’s Cut to Ghost of Tsushima, it already lacks an upgrade option. You don’t have any choice here when it comes to upgrading from the original game, while for Ghost of Tsushima, you can pay $19.99 to get the new story content if you own the base game and $29.99 to get the PS5 version in addition to the content.

Speaking of which, the mini artbook that is being sold for the Digital Deluxe is also included with the Director’s Cut of Ghost of Tsushima in addition to the following bonus content.

• Iki Island expansion: New story, mini-games, enemy types and more.*
• Legends online co-op mode.**
• Digital mini art book.
• Director’s commentary: The creative team sits down with a renowned Japanese historian to look at the world of Ghost of Tsushima and how it compares to the real-life events that inspired it.
• One Technique Point.*
• Charm of Hachiman’s Favour.*
• Hero of Tsushima Skin Set: Golden Mask, Sword Kit, Horse, Saddle.*

While the higher price for the PS5 upgrade is debatable, Sony is handling Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut in a far better way than Death Stranding Director’s Cut, where they are not even bothering to offer an upgrade.

Death Stranding is a Sony PlayStation IP that is developed by Kojima Productions. Sony didn’t publish the game on PC and instead opted to give it to 505 Games. They publish it otherwise on their consoles including the PS4 and the upcoming Director’s Cut on PS5.