The Future Is Foggy for Silent Hills
Looks like the future of the upcoming Silent Hills might be silent ills. A two-part punch was delivered to fans of the series over the weekend, when first it was announced that the critically acclaimed P.T. (“Playable Trailer”) would be removed on April 29th. With no explanation from Konami other than that the “distribution period of ‘P.T. (Playable Teaser)’ on PlayStation Store will expire,” fans feared the worst.
It seems their fears might be a reality today, as this reported quote from Guillermo del Toro sends cold shivers down fans’ spines:
“It’s not gonna happen and that breaks my greasy little heart.”
The quote comes from Matt Hackney’s Twitter, @tvsmatthackney, who reports that del Toro was responding to a question regarding the future of Silent Hills during a Q&A segment at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Various other sources have since confirmed, with IGN stating that a source close to del Toro confirmed that a collaboration between the acclaimed director and video game guru Hideo Kojima was “not gonna happen.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay_RAkE7bUY]
This breakdown in development was not entirely unexpected, as fans back in March predicted the game’s cancellation in the wake of Kojima announcing that he would be severing ties with Konami following the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Kojima was supposed to be the creative director of the Silent Hills project with del Toro, so the question of how the game would come to fruition in light of the split was a valid one. Things have been tense between Kojima and Konami for a long time now, as the publisher has been “shifting production structure to a headquarters-controlled system.” This spelled doom for relationships with rockstar developers like Kojima, who is reported to have had several power struggles with the company.
Kojima has stated that he will stay on with the now independent Kojima Digital Entertainment, continuing to support the Metal Gear franchise. As Silent Hill was always a Konami title, it is unlikely that he will work on the project now that he is separated, but that does not entirely spell doom for the future of the series. Last generation saw the release of four Silent Hill games (yes, I am counting both Origins and Shattered Memories), but the quality of these titles did not meet most loyalist’s expectations. What fans were most excited for was a bold new take on the series that P.T. proved the duo could deliver.
With over a million downloads of P.T. as a word of mouth PS4 PSN exclusive, I doubt they will drop the franchise altogether. It is likely that they will refocus their ideas for the franchise, try to muster up some new hype, and deliver a mediocre product in line with what they have done for the better part of a decade. I am actually not one of those haters that trashes on Silent Hill: Homecoming for focusing too much on combat, but even I will admit that there has been a sharp decline in quality since Silent Hill 2. I have liked almost every installment, but P.T. rocked my world in a way that I imagine the original Alien film did to theater audiences, so I am crushed that the project will never see completion.
As a takeaway, even the most promising project can be crushed by internal politics. Keep your eyes out for a new Silent Hill but guard your hearts and fear falling in love again. Oh, and go home and download P.T. before it vanishes on April 29th. Play it, treasure it, and wistfully dream of what might have been.
Categorized:Horror Gaming News
