These days, Hideo Kojima has become more than just a game developer. The creator of the hyper-popular titles Metal Gear and Death Stranding, Kojima lately has been involved in a wide range of projects, from movies to fashion to technology. It’s scant surprise, then, that his game studio has partnered with Asus to deliver a special-edition ROG Flow Z13 laptop, unveiled at CES this week. We got a first look at this slick notebook ahead of the show.
Design: ‘For Ludens Who Dare’ (But What’s a Luden?)
The new collaboration adorns Asus’ existing detachable 2-in-1 laptop with a black-and-gold color scheme and design cues inspired by Death Stranding; formally, it’s dubbed the rather prosaic “ROG Flow Z13-KJP.” Anyone who’s familiar with Kojima Productions’ skeletal mascot (known as a Luden, and shown on the laptop screen in the photo above) will immediately recognize it. To achieve the look and feel, Asus collaborated with Yoji Shinkawa, art director and lead character and mechanical designer of the Death Stranding duology.
(Credit: Asus)
Shinkawa is known for his stylized, sketch-like illustrations, use of heavy shadows, and high level of detail, but when it comes to his mechanical designs, the approach is far more utilitarian. Taking a look at the back of the tablet, you can see that not an inch of the machine was left untouched. Combined with the cyberpunk-ish design of the original ROG Flow Z13, Shinkawa’s touch gives it the look of gear that Sam Bridges might deliver in Death Stranding.
I especially like the designs around the back and underside. The black and gold trims across the vents, combined with the small font for warnings like “Heat Vent / Do Not Cover,” give the laptop a military vibe. The carbon-fiber chassis further adds to the combat-ready look and feel. (But don’t take its looks too literally: The ROG Flow Z13 has no MIL-STD certification.)
(Credit: Asus)
The new laptop also comes with a suitcase that closely resembles the cases from the Death Stranding games. Unlike the laptop, the case is entirely white with bronze trim around the opening seam. Near the handle, you’ll find some text with the coolest description of a laptop ever: “Extra Vehicular Creative Activity Device.”
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(Credit: Asus)
Specs and Pricing: Kojima Will Cost You
The new design aside, the laptop itself remains unchanged from when we reviewed the latest version back in May. It features the same powerful AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with a 50 TOPS NPU and AMD Radeon 8060S Graphics. It boasts the same 1TB SSD, as well as a whopping 128GB of RAM. The display is a 13.4-inch, 2,560-by-1,600-pixel touch screen with a 180Hz refresh rate. The detachable keyboard is also functionally the same, though its aesthetics have been significantly overhauled.
At more than $2,000 in the configuration we tested, it’s far from the most affordable gaming laptop, and an outlier in that it’s a detachable model and relies on AMD’s powerful integrated graphics, not a discrete GPU. But in my opinion, the Kojima Productions collaboration somewhat mitigates one of our main complaints with the original machine: its poor dollar-to-gaming-performance ratio. I’d be willing to pay a premium for a limited-edition laptop that looks this good, though we don’t yet know how much more the Kojima edition will cost. (Asus hasn’t yet announced pricing or availability.)
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The collaboration is not limited to the ROG Flow Z13; Asus also plans to release new variants of the ROG Keris II Origin gaming mouse and ROG Delta II gaming headset, as well as a mouse pad adorned with a gold Kojima Productions logo and a very cool-looking gold, white, and black color scheme.
(Credit: Asus)
Like with the laptop, Asus has not yet announced a release date or price for any of the other gear. We expect to learn more in the coming months; in the meantime, start saving.
About Our Expert
Zackery Cuevas
Writer, Hardware
Experience
I’m a PCMag reviewer and ISF-certified TV calibrator focused on computer accessories, laptops, gaming monitors, and video games. I’ve been writing, playing, and complaining about games for as long as I remember, but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve been able to shout my opinions directly at a larger audience. My work has appeared on iMore, Windows Central, Android Central, and TWICE, and I have a diverse portfolio of editing work under my belt from my time spent at Scholastic and Oxford University Press. I also have a few book-author credits under my belt—I’ve contributed to the sci-fi anthology Under New Suns, and I’ve even written a Peppa Pig book.
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