We’ve learned the Silent Hill trademark was renewed by publisher Konami, further adding speculation a remake or remaster is planned.
The renewed trademark covers things ranging from video games, various goods and services, and even virtual reality headsets.
News that the Silent Hill trademark was renewed came via the r/LeaksandRumors subreddit, where user LongJonSiIlver found the renewed mark alongside other renewals for classic games like Tokimeki Memorial (which just got an English translation), Gradius, Frogger, and The Water Margin.
As this is just a renewal, it could be related to a number of things, even merchandise, but also likely this is just Konami protecting their intellectual property.
Previous rumors kept swirling that Konami was looking to reboot or possibly remake Silent Hill, among their other various popular franchises like Metal Gear Solid and even Castlevania.
Other rumors even speculated that Sony wanted to buy the IPs from Konami and handle reboots or remakes themselves. To date nothing has come from all these rumors.
The most recent mainline game in the series was the 2012-released Silent Hill: Downpour. Konami actually tried to reboot Silent Hill with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima tentatively as “Silent Hills,” which got sadly cancelled in 2015 by Konami.
Following this the relationship between Konami and Kojima deteriorated [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] ultimately leading to Kojima leaving Konami, and forming Kojima Productions. They have since been working on Death Stranding and unannounced projects.
Since then, most other veteran staff that worked on the Silent Hill franchise have long since moved on as well, like its creator Keiichiro Toyama, who is working on his new game Slitterhead. Toyama also recently suggest Konami would have to rethink the main concept behind Silent Hill, for it to be relevant to modern audiences.
Visionary Silent Hill artist Masahiro Ito also talked up the series recently, suggesting he wishes he never made Silent Hill 2’s iconic Pyramid Head monster – which has become a mascot for the series, appearing in basically whatever Konami chooses.
Editor’s Note: Featured image is from Takaaki Hattori
