Konami have denied the rumors of a Silent Hill soft reboot, and of a revival of Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills (also known as P.T.).
In case you missed our prior coverage, sources claimed to Rely on Horror that two Silent Hill games were in development. The first was a “soft reboot” involving Keiichiro Toyama (director and writer for the original Silent Hill), Akira Yamaoka (music composer for many titles in the franchise), and Masahiro Ito (monster designer).
The second was a a revival of Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills. For those unfamiliar, a demo titled P.T. (Playable Teaser) was added to the PlayStation Network in 2014. The unsettling horror game utilized many cryptic clues to unlock the game’s true ending, revealing it was Silent Hills.
The project would have been designed and directed by Hideo Kojima, in collaboration with Guillermo del Toro, and with the involvement of Norman Reedus.
However, the game was cancelled in 2015 by Konami. Soon after the situation rapidly deteriorated [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] ultimately leading to Kojima leaving Konami, and forming Kojima Productions. Their first title, Death Stranding, featured Norman Reedus and Guillermo del Toro using facial and motion-capture.
Due to the rocky relationship between Konami and Kojima, we had our doubts that Sony would be able to get access to the Silent Hill IP and have Kojima work on a Silent Hill game.
An older anonymous message board post claiming to be a Konani employee then resurfaced, claiming that Sony were seeking to buy the Silent Hill IP from Konami, along with Castlevania, and Metal Gear.
Now, a North American PR representative for Konami has issued a statement to Rely On Horror, denying the rumors of a new Silent Hill game being true.
“We’re aware of all the rumors and reports but can confirm that they are not true. I know it’s not the answer your fans may want to hear.”
[…] “It’s not to say we are completely closing the door on the franchise, just not in the way it is being reported.”
Rely on Horror report that when asking for clarification from Konami (if the rumor of both games were false) they received no reply.
Alongside a source (neither of the ones from their prior article) and Konami themselves back in January, Rely on Horror report Konami is “listening to customer feedback and considering ways to provide the next title.”
Despite Konami’s statement, Rely on Horror still have trust in their source.
“While we do trust our sources who have shared accurate information with us about multiple game series and industry happenings in the past, publishing Konami’s side of the story is important. That said, the details regarding recent rumors mostly pertain to alleged events happening between Konami Japan, SIE Japan Studio, and Kojima Productions. We have only spoken to Konami US, and we’re hoping for additional information from them to have a clear cut answer about what aspects of the rumors are false; if received, we’ll update this story.”
It is also worth pointing out that if a rumor were to be accurate, it is unlikely a company would confirm it. Only in the case of a leak being so decisive and believable would a company reveal (or officially announce earlier than planned) a game in production.
Even so, Konami would lose nothing announcing a new title from a series with such pedigree was in production.
Assuming it was not so early the project could still be viably cancelled, a basic teaser trailer or image would suffice, and boost the company’s stocks as investors wish to be involved with a major release.
We will keep you informed as we learn more.
Image: YouTube
