Fans Are Comparing Wattam With Death Stranding, and Now Keita Takahashi Is Weighing in

The moment that Death Stranding came out last week, the world was changed. Hideo Kojima's vision of a game that emphasizes the grand importance of connecting with other people is out in the world... so it's therefore no longer the most anticipated game of its kind. Does that status then transfer to Wattam, the next game from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi? Takahashi himself isn't sure, but perhaps he'll let us know once he can actually sit down with Kojima's latest.

The Official PlayStation Blog posted a new interview with Takahashi today to promote Wattam's newly announced December 17 release date, and in it Takahashi addresses the perceived similarities similarities between Wattam and Death Stranding (which Takahashi himself has poked fun at). After all, Wattam's also a non-violent game about social bonds. The surprising part of the exchange isn't that Takahashi seems open to pondering the similarities—it's that, according to him, he doesn't actually have a way to play Death Stranding:

You have to admire the boldness of asking Sony for a loaner PlayStation in the middle of an interview with the Official PlayStation Blog... about Wattam, a game Sony was originally going to publish.

The whole interview's worth a read. Takahashi drops some details about the development of Wattam and the original Katamari Damacy, and gives a firm-if-cheeky rebuttal to the idea that he only makes "endearingly weird" games: "All my games are not endearingly weird."

Whether or not you see any strong similarities between Wattam and Death Stranding's broader themes, two concrete points of comparison come to mind. One: Death Stranding is a PS4 exclusive for now, but like Wattam, it'll come to the PC. Two: both Wattam and Death Stranding involve poop. Now, if only someone could ask Kojima if the latter detail means Wattam can be considered a "strand game" or not.