With the announcements of both Death Stranding and Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cuts, you might be noticing a pattern here. This is actually something I’ve written about before. It’s the new version of Platinum that Sony is putting on exclusive titles, except the Director’s Cut always contains new content. This is important because it ties in with what the game actually is. On the surface, it looks like the original release was shortened somehow. Content was cut either out of some vision that Sony had, or because the developer ran out of time. Now, Hideo Kojima has spoken out to clarify what exactly Death Stranding Director’s Cut is, and explain a little more about the new branding.
Kojima actually doesn’t like the Director’s Cut branding. He says that a Director’s Cut is a longer version of a film that has been cut down to fit in with audience expectations, and usually with a little influence from investors. In reality, Death Stranding Director’s Cut is a bigger and better game, but none of the extra content was ever cut from that initial release. Instead, all of this extra content, the racing, the new missions, the shooting range, and the improved exploration, are all additions that have been developed once the game was launched.
Herein lies the key difference between games and films, audiences always want more. If a movie is too long, people won’t sit through it. You’ll only get dedicated fans watching 4-hour cuts of their favourite films. With games though, fans will extend their time in them as much as possible if they love them. They’ll push to find every collective, complete every difficulty mode, and even use photo mode to elongate the original play time. When it comes to games, more is always better, but Director’s Cut isn’t exactly the right thing to name an extended version of a game.
Instead, Sony would have been better off making these Director’s Cuts the Extended Editions. They’re not definitive, because the developers are always working to add more, but they’re very much an elongated version of the original release. Fans enjoy more content, but the Director’s Cut branding doesn’t make that clear, and it’s going to harm these editions moving forward.
