The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) announced Thursday that Kojima Productions Founder and CEO Hideo Kojima will make appearances at Esports World Cup 2025 (EWC) and the New Global Sport Conference (NGSC). The Esports World Cup is taking place now until Aug. 24, followed by the New Global Sport Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh on Aug. 23 – 24.
While there, Kojima will discuss the making of Death Stranding 2 On The Beach. From the announcement:
DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH – Blurring The Lines Between Games and Cinema: Hideo Kojima will speak at the New Global Sport Conference 2025 (NGSC) on August 24 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh, delivering exclusive insights into the game’s creation at the premier global forum for leaders across gaming, esports and sport. He will be joined on stage by his longtime friend and collaborator, film maker Nicolas Winding Refn, who portrayed the character Heartman in DEATH STRANDING.
Hideo Kojima will also appear at the EWC Festival’s Publisher Park, where fans can attend a special Death Stranding 2 meet-and-greet, take part in a game-themed cosplay competition, and meet Kojima in person.
Death Stranding 2 released on PS5 in late-June. Kojima announced in May that he would promote his new game by visiting 12 cities around the world as part of a special tour called Death Stranding 2: World Tour.
Kojima joins other industry executives appearing at NGSC in August including:
- HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud – president, Saudi Esports Federation.
- HRH Prince Fahad bin Mansour bin Nasser Al Saud- president of the Saudi G20. Startup20, G20YEA, and chairman of Entrepreneurship Vision.
- Ralf Reichert – CEO, Esports World Cup Foundation.
- Steven Bartlett The Diary of a CEO Podcast host, founder of Flight Story & Thirdweb.
- Peter Moore Owner, Santa Barbara Sky FC, Former Liverpool FC CEO.
- Casey Wasserman – Chairman & CEO, Wasserman.
- Magnus Carlsen – Chess Grandmaster, EWC Ambassador.
- Mike McCabe- COO, Esports World Cup Foundation.
- Faisal Mohammed Bin Homran – chief product officer – Esports World Cup Foundation.
- Mohammed Alnimer – chief commercial officer, Esports World Cup Foundation.
- Brian Ward – CEO, Savvy Games Group.
- Shuji Utsumi – president & COO, SEGA.
- Toshimoto Mitomo – chief strategy officer, Sony.
- Bruce Stein – co-founder aXiomatic Gaming and MD at Juno Capital.
- Danny Tang – co-founder and CEO, Hero Esports.
- Fabian Scheuermann – chief games officer, Esports World Cup Foundation.
- Jens Hilgers – general partner & co-founder, BITKRAFT Ventures.
- Katsuhiro Harada – game director & producer, Bandai Namco Entertainment.
- Michael Murray – producer, Bandai Namco Entertainment.
- Kartik Prabhakara – co-founder and partner, Aream & Co.
- Taewon Yun SVP & head of game strategy ,NCSOFT.
- Victor Goossens – founder & Co-CEO, Team Liquid.
- Marat Karpeko – general partner NVO & co-founder of Wargaming.
- Robbie Douek CEO, BLAST.
- Pete Radovich Jr – VP of production & senior creative director, CBS Sports.
- Abdulaziz Alomran – founding partner and CEO of Impact46.
- Enrico D’Angelo – VP of product for economy, Roblox.
- Min-Liang Tan co-founder & CEO, Razer.
- Toby Evan-Jones executive director and head of gaming, NEOM.
- Jan Alessie co-founder & MD, World Football Summit.
To learn more about the New Global Sport Conference and the Esports World Cup, visit newglobalsportconference.com and esportsworldcup.com, respectively.
The Esports World Cup is a seven week, multi-title competition hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, featuring an overall prize pool of more than $70 million USD. The competition is funded by a grant from the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund and operated in cooperation with ESL FACEIT Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi government-owned gaming and esports company Savvy Games Group. The 2025 edition runs from July 7 – Aug. 24.
Projects backed or owned by the Saudi Arabian government such as Esports World Cup and the tandem business conference the NGSC are criticized for helping the government engage in “sports washing,” or using various forms of entertainment to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGTBQ+ rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms have been highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.