Fans are calling Death Stranding 2 the first ‘real’ PS5 game, but what does that mean?

What is a “next generation” video game? There’s probably never been a definitive answer to this question, but contenders for moments that have pushed the medium forward in a significant way have historically been easy to identify. The jump from pixels to polygons. Solitary experiences versus massively multiplayer games. Open-world games with complex simulations. Split-second loading. Now, in 2025, some are positing Hideo Kojima’s new delivery simulator Death Stranding 2: On The Beach as the first “real” PS5 game. This assertion might sound like the type of drivel best relegated to fanboys who use phrases like “console wars” with sincerity, but it’s also an astounding claim to make a whole five years into our current generation of hardware. Hype aside, the certitude surrounding Death Stranding 2’s legacy reflects an industry of increasingly diminishing returns.

So, how are people defining a real PS5 game? It’s difficult to discern in some conversations, but much of the criteria is the evident technical prowess. Rather than specific innovations, we’re talking frames, loading times, and above all, visual fidelity. Posts showcasing the lush landscapes and evolution of Norman Reedus in Death Stranding 2 are racking up millions of views on social media. Guerrilla Game’s Decima engine is at the heart of most of the conversations propping up Death Stranding 2, if not the PS5 as a whole, when you account that it powers first-party games like Horizon Zero Dawn.

If Death Stranding 2 feels different from older games that use the same technology, it might be because it’s one of the first modern PS5 games that isn’t trying to juggle multiple generations at once. You can play a version of Death Stranding on mobile and PS4, which are platforms that can only be pushed so far. Millions of people still haven’t upgraded from the last generation of hardware, which has made developers reluctant to leave those audiences behind. But 2025 is the year that Sony predicted it would leave the PS4 behind, which means we’re only starting to see what a fully “next gen” experience might look like.

Is this really why people spent years hunting down a PS5, or why any of us are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a gaming console, though? To marvel at rocks? When I see that we’re only starting to leverage the possibilities of new consoles yet companies like Sony and Microsoft are already teasing follow-ups, all I feel is cynicism. There’s a pervasive sense, and it’s only gotten more pronounced over time, that bigger players in this space rely on an ambiguous notion of power to obscure the fact that they’re running out of ideas of how to push the industry forward.

Microsoft has long seemed ready to leave behind the idea of a proprietary platform like the Xbox, a futuristic notion that also, coincidentally, relieves the company from having to redefine a vision for the next generation of video games. Meanwhile, Sony has already released a more capable console in the form of the PS5 Pro — but there’s not an overwhelming sense that you’re missing out on much if you don’t own it, even if games like Death Stranding 2 take advantage of it.

Then there’s the Switch 2. You could say it’s an iterative console that, for all of its technical sprucing, inspires a fraction of the magic of its predecessor. You’d be right to point out most of its must-play games are games that already exist. Yet getting that bump in power was still critical for a viable modern console. Fact is, you can’t enjoy a game’s artistic vision if it can’t run properly. Where Nintendo takes things from here, now that the console is capable enough, is a conundrum for future years.

I’m not suggesting there is a shortage of good games this generation, far from it. Recently, though, many of those outstanding games are coming from smaller entities in the industry. Just this year alone, games like Blue Prince, Split Fiction, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have dominated the conversation. These are from studios that aren’t being pumped with millions of dollars and pushed to justify a cutting edge games engine, only to be laid off when the game doesn’t become the next Minecraft. It would be reductive to say this death spiral is being caused by any one single issue, but the drive toward marginally better graphics undergirds it. Lavishing praise for Death Stranding 2 on the basis of what it looks like furthers the culture that makes this disappointing reality possible.

To be fair, for all its spectacle, Death Stranding 2 is a rare instance where the extravagance is imbued with purpose. Details like realistic fluid simulations are a core part of the gameplay, as protagonist Sam Bridges has to contend with terrain where a mere misplaced pebble can ruin hours of progress. And sure, there’s a real chance Death Stranding 2 does go down in history as an experience that defines an entire generation of games and its possibilities. I still wince at the notion that these facts might be true of an experience that, by admission of its own creator, is deeply commercial and safe. That Death Stranding 2 contributes to a harmful culture for the industry and also, at the same time, is something genuinely special are not completely incompatible ideas.

I also can’t completely discount the notion that Death Stranding 2 feels like the first real PS5 game. Adulation like this can only come from an audience that knows something is missing, even if they can’t say exactly what that thing is.

I’m reminded of a famous Disney animation hailing out of a period widely regarded as a renaissance: Cinderella’s dress. It’s that moment when Cinderella’s humble rags are transformed into a beautiful costume that will eventually help her steal the heart of a prince. There’s a ton of technical ingenuity at play here that you can’t fully appreciate unless you understand animation, and the painstaking work it takes to enliven a tiny portion of a few seconds of a larger scene. In the most brutish of terms, it’s just a recreation of the way an actual dress flows.

Years later, this animation is easily one of the most iconic moments in the entire medium. This distinction for the dress is not purely a matter of skill or realism, though that’s part of it. It’s that someone, somewhere, cared enough to get something that small detail exactly right. Even if it didn’t matter; even if no one would notice.

The reason people share clips of Sam Bridges tripping over himself over a pile of rocks with utter awe doesn’t stem from a lack of imagination. We all have that human hunger to be reassured that others see the world as we do. Graphical fidelity and the incessant “next gen” pursuit, in this frame, is not necessarily the artistic equivalent of Narcissus drowning in his own reflection. There’s wizardry in holding up an ordinary object or everyday detail, as Death Stranding 2’s realistic landscape does, in a light that inspires genuine wonder. For all my grandstanding, I’m not immune to magic.