Konami goes all in on SILENT HILL

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Konami has been largely absent from video games in recent years, focusing on pachinkos over interactive entertainment. But the pachinko industry was rocked by COVID-19, which led to the closure of hundreds of pachinko parlors in Japan, so Konami is now making games its primary focus. The company owns some of video game’s most memorable IPs, including Castlevania, Contra, and Metal Gear, but seems to have gone all in on one in particular: Silent Hill. During today’s Silent Hill Transition, Konami announced 3 new games a movie, and an interactive live event, the first Silent Hill projects in over a decade. Here’s everything we learned from the presentation.

Silent Hill presentation

Silent Hill 2 remake

The first announcement was the long-rumored remake of Silent Hill 2, the most acclaimed game in the series. The remake is being developed by Bloober Team, the studio behind Blair Witch and The Medium. Bloober has faced criticism for its portrayals of mental health in its game, described by TechRadar as “perpetuated harmful, and frankly lazy.” But since this is a remake, Bloober unlikely to add any potentially offensive original story content, and the team has the technical chops to make a next-generation game, so Bloober seems like a good fit for the project.

Silent Hill: Townfall

We know very little about this game outside its mysterious trailer. Silent Hill: Townfall is being developed by No Code, the studio behind the horror-puzzle title Stories Untold, so this is likely a smaller-scale than other games announced by Konami today.

Silent Hill: Ascension

Easily the strangest announcement of the day, Silent Hill: Ascension is a live event where “fans can influence this new world and its inhabitants as a community,” It’s led by streaming software company Genvid, in conjunction with Bad Robot, Behaviour Interactive, and dj2 Entertainment. Genvid CEO Jacob Navok says that it will be “a new form of entertainment that blends community, live storytelling and interactivity into something that will be deeper and scarier when experienced together.”

Silent Hill f

Silent Hill f is set in 1960s Japan, written by the acclaimed Japanese visual novel writer Ryukishi07. But this appears to be a full game, since it’s being developed by Neobard, the Chinese studio that assisted development on Resident Evil Re:Verse, and produced by Nintendo veteran Motoi Okamoto. The Silent Hill series is primarily based in the United States, so this looks like an interesting departure for the series.

Return to Silent Hill

A new Silent Hill film is in production, the third in the series. The previous films received middling reviews, but the first movie made over $100 million, so there may be an audience for it. Return to Silent Hill is being directed by Christophe Gans, the director of the original Silent Hill film in 2006.

The presentation was nothing short of a blowout for Silent Hill, and even more news may still be on the way, given rumors about a new main entry in the series. It was also a statement by Konami that it’s fully invested in making games again. The biggest question is whether the company is entirely focused on Silent Hill, or if it’s ready to invest some TLC in its other major franchises. Hopefully we’ll know the answer sooner rather than later.

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