A very cool reference to P.T, also known as Silent Hills “Playable Teaser”, was discovered by players recently in the new Director’s Cut edition of Death Stranding.

Death Stranding Director´s Cut.

As you might have already known, Death Stranding Director’s Cut which was just released on PS5 earlier this month is a new and improved version of Kojima Productions Death Stranding. And it’s packed with all sorts of performance upgrades, new features, new habilities, new missions… and some new spooky stuff.

One short vignette in particular, which was shared on Twitter by Youtuber TheSphereHunter is being deemed as a pretty clear reference to PT´s infamous spectral antagonist Lisa.

A video clip of the encounter shows Death Stranding´s playable character Sam Bridges waking up in his private quarters to find a shadowy figure lurking in the shower.

As Sam approaches the figure, it begins to shake and shutter in the same way Lisa does from P.T.

Then, just after the camera moves into the first person the figure leaps out and attacks Sam in the same way Lisa attacks the camera in P.T.

Of course, one of the places Lisa appears in P.T is in the bathroom. And the movements plus the behavior are incredibly similar. Making this a pretty clear callback.

So much so that fans are now speculating what P.T’s reference in Death Stranding Director´s Cut could mean for the future of Kojima Productions.

Silent Hills P.T

A little bit of context for the uninitiated. P.T was a demo for the new Silent Hill game that never came to be, known as Silent Hills.
Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro were co-directing with Norman Reedus starring as the lead protagonist.
Unfortunately, Kojima and Konami began having disputes internally sometime during the development of Silent Hills and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Which ultimately ended up with Kojima and his top staff leaving the company.

Who of course would go on to move Kojima Productions to the US. And then release Death Stranding a few years later.
Before that though, Konami officially canceled Silent Hills back in 2015. And even pulled P.T from the Playstation Store so you can´t even download it anymore.

Now, despite being a free demo that probably took most players somewhere around two hours to complete. P.T’s clever use of space, player psychology, terrifying mechanics, and replayability single-handedly redefined what horror games could be.
All the excitement and reverence around P.T is exactly what has fans questioning the intentions behind the reference in Death Stranding Director’s Cut.
Will Kojima’s next project be a Horror game?
Will Konami and Kojima somehow team up once again to make Silent Hills happen for real?
Or maybe more drastically, Microsoft or Sony buys out the Silent Hills license. Which would allow Kojima Productions to work on it.

Controversy with other Studios.

There has also been speculation and controversy around a small developer based out in Nederland called Blue Box Game Studios and their potential involvement with Kojima Productions and or Konami.
Due to some questionable marketing and framing, for a while, many believed that Blue Box Game Studios’ project code name “Abandoned” is actually an unannounced Silent Hills game.
However, despite several confusing teases and tweets, those rumors have mostly been debunked, most recently by a FAQ on the official Blue Box Games Studio’s website, but as you can imagine some fans are still carrying the torch – while many others grew angry deeming it a big marketing scam.

Regardless the P.T easter egg in Death Stranding is a bit of a double-edged sword.
On one hand, it’s a really cool nod to one of the most important Horror games in the last decade. But on the other hand, it’s also a reminder of Silent Hills. The promise of a legendary game that may never come to pass.
But what do you think?

The ghost encountered in Death Stranding is just Kojima having a bit of fun?
Or is it a sign of better things to come?