Hideo Kojima, the guru game developer of Sony PlayStation 4’s Death Stranding, spat directly in the face of legendary outdoors ultimate enthusiast, Steve Climber, by essentially ripping the Flextrek backpack right off of Steve’s back and making it a feature of his new blockbuster game without so much as a how-do-you-do.
Death Stranding was developed by Kojima Productions and released by Sony Interactive Entertainment on Nov. 8 2019. ArsTechnica describes the Death Stranding protagonist as “a guy carrying a comically overloaded backpack.” A Washington Post article describes the game as “all about keeping your balance as you carry cartoonishly large amounts of cargo on your back, shoulders and legs.” If that isn’t a perfect description of Steve Climber, I don’t know what is. (I wonder why Kojima didn’t also rip Steve’s French Wedge right off of him as well?)
Our original Flextrek video featuring Steve Climber in the Flextrek 37,000,000,000,000, was released in 2008 and has since racked up around 118,000 views. Years later in 2011 we released our Flextrek Whipsnake video that has amassed over 1.5 million views. These videos predate Death Stranding by many many years.

Since Death Stranding came out our YouTube channel has gotten more than a few comments on the Flextrek series from people who have seen the similarities. Here are a few examples:
“Death Stranding in a nutshell.”
“I love that Kojima saw this and was like…brilliant, I should make this a key game mechanic.”
“I see where Kojima got his idea from.”
“dude death stranding”
“Directed by Hideo Kojima”
“Kojima liked this video.”
“Hey look, they predicted Death Stranding.”
“This is what inspired Kojima to make this game.”
“Pretty sure this game is just about the Flextrek Whipsnake.”
“Clearly Kojima’s inspiration, right here.”
“This is where Kojima got the first ideas for death stranding…amazing.”
“now we know where Kojima got his game idea…”

People may say, well now you’re getting more views, so everybody wins! Unfortunately our Whipsnake video has been age-restricted because of certain close-up views of Steve in the French Wedge, so we don’t reap any ad revenue.

On the other hand Rhodes and Rose has just released a book called The Rhodes and Rose Lifestyle Digest that features Steve on the cover sporting the tallest Flextrek we ever created. We ran some ads on social media promoting our book and immediately started getting comments like:
“I take it you’ve been playing Death Stranding.”
“Wonder what Sam Bridges is delivering.”
“Did you guys get the add[sic] idea from Death Stranding?”
“Death Stranding?”
“Is this Death Stranding?”
No, this is not Death Stranding.You people need to realize that Steve Climber was saving the planet in his Flextrek 37 Trillion long before Death Stranding came along. Let’s set that record straight.
As one person commented recently, “Owen Rose oof guy def stole my idea”. (Translation: Owen Rose says; golly, it appears that that person definitely filched our concept.)
While we are flattered that Kojima saw some of our videos, it’s a bit galling that someone who clearly piles his money in huge heaps can come along and pillage Steve’s backpack without even giving us so much as a “good job guys, here’s some credit for your brilliant idea.”
To remedy this injustice, I suggest Kojima – like the Republican National Committee who spent almost $100,000 buying copies of Donald Trump Jr’s book “Triggered” – should buy at least 1,000 copies of The Rhodes and Rose Lifestyle Digest for his closest friends and family this holiday season.