In between a keynote presentation and receiving an award, Hideo Kojima was interviewed by GameSpot at the 2016 Develop Conference, revealing that he believes gaming in general will move to shorter experiences and he isn’t sure yet if Death Stranding will adopt an episodic model.
Here’s what he had to say when asked if episodic game releases appeal to him:

For [Death Stranding] I can’t tell. I’m not sure. But in the future I think this is a change that will definitely take place and I’d be interested. I don’t think movies in the future will last two hours, especially when people are already demanding more speedy experiences and delivery. So taking shorter time spans to develop, putting it out, integrating user feedback quickly, and having that freedom in game-making, I think it will apply to movies and TV too. Right now we have two-hour-long movies and TV episodes are roughly 40 minutes, but in Japan you have morning shows that last 15 minutes. That’s where I think things are headed, having five or 15-minute episodes. For games, having massive, long games will become a thing of the past.

Now at Kojima Productions after working at Konami, Kojima talked about being an independent developer and how he decided to make a big game with Death Stranding, rather than a smaller title:

It’s not that outside factors make the whole decision for me, but that was a time when I was trying to figure out whether I should make something indie...