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505 confirms Death Stranding will launch simultaneously on Steam and the Epic Store

When it comes to PC next summer.

505 Games has confirmed that Hideo Kojima's third-person valley ambler Death Stranding won't, as some had suspected, be snaffled up in an Epic Games Store exclusivity deal when it launches on PC next year, and that it will also be coming to Steam.

When news broke last week that 505 Games would be handling publishing duties for Death Stranding, many wondered whether Epic would once again reach deep into its pockets and turn Kojima's highly anticipated oddity into another controversial punter-pulling exclusive - as it did for the Remedy developed and 505 published Control.

Now, however, 505 has revealed that won't be the case. "We've been flooded with questions across our social channels since [the announcement]", it wrote in a new blog post, before confirming that Death Stranding will, in fact, launch simultaneously on Steam and the Epic Games Store when it comes to PC in summer 2020. No mention was made of other storefronts.

Cover image for YouTube videoLet's Play Death Stranding Gameplay - LET'S MEETUS THE FOETUS OF NORMAN REEDUS!

To accompany the announcement, Death Stranding store pages are now live on both Steam and the Epic Store, and it's possible to pre-order the game, should you be in a rush to hand over your £54.99/$59.99 USD more than half a year ahead of its planned PC release.

PlayStation 4 owners are, of course, already knee-deep in Death Stranding's world of moist glens and bridge babies, following its release on the platform today. But was it/will it be worth the wait? Eurogamer's Oli Welsh graced it with a Recommended badge in his review, calling it a "messy, indulgent vanity project" that's also "a true original."

"As the credits roll on Death Stranding, heavy with unearned pathos, the impression you're left with is of a self-congratulatory monument to the ego of a creator who is high on his own supply," wrote Oli, "But then you return to the game proper, select a humble delivery order, lace up your boots and plan another reckoning with those unforgettable, haunted moors. And you realise that this game has got under your skin in a way few do."