The Silent Hill franchise is one of the most beloved survival horror franchises in gaming, with many praising the series for its psychological thrills and disturbing atmosphere. In 2014, hype for the series reached a new high as Hideo Kojima revealed he would be tackling the series with Silent Hills, alongside a brief preview of what to expect with the now-infamous demo P.T.
All of this anticipation was quickly dashed away when Konami removed P.T from the PlayStation store, cancelled Silent Hills, alongside cutting ties with Hideo Kojima altogether. Being one of the biggest upsets in recent gaming history, fans of the franchise felt robbed of great things to look forward to, clamoring for any updates on a new release ever since.
After a dark and gloomy period with no good news, hope seems to be returning for fans to return to a game series so renowned for being dark and gloomy. Numerous leaks and rumors have been mounting over the years. While information on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt, some notable standouts seem to indicate that a new Silent Hill game is not a question of ‘if’ but a matter of ‘when’.
Major stores and retailers have been known over the years to accidentally leak new games earlier than planned, such as the upcoming Mass Effect Trilogy Remastered being listed by a Portuguese retailer. Mistakes happen, but naturally the gaming community are quick to notice these slip-ups and word spreads like wildfire in this modern social media age. Now, knowing these leaks can commonly happen at any time, a close eye is kept on major store websites like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, just in case something were to be posted by accident.
Sure enough, last summer when Sony was preparing for its PS5 reveal event, a sudden Amazon UK listing for a Konami PS5 game immediately sparked intrigue among gamers. Naturally, all of this was pure speculation as the Sony event came and went, with no sign of Silent Hill anywhere. Fans of the franchise still had a funny feeling that something was going on behind the scenes.
After a strange tweet from Konami referencing Silent Hill 2 stirred up fans to think some sort of announcement was coming, the company quickly hit the brakes to try and calm the hype. Players were rapidly rushing to conclusions from the revival of Silent Hills to a full blown remake of Silent Hill 2, from such a vague tweet, indicating just how desperate this fanbase is for any new information.
Even more odd, however, was when Konami’s solution was to encourage fans to instead divert attention to an entirely new Silent Hill twitter account for future updates. This was only blown further out of proportion since that same statement from Konami said fans should expect official Silent Hill news to possibly come from an event, just days before the aforementioned PS5 reveal showcase. As stated, nothing Silent Hill related was shown off, but it only further intensified fan outcry for a new installment.
Hideo Kojima’s time with the Silent Hill franchise was sadly short lived, and after his parting with Konami, he created his own company aptly named Kojima Productions. With the company launching Death Stranding in 2019, many wonder what is coming next, especially after rumors of a cancelled project within Kojima Productions.
Understandably, Kojima may never wish to revisit the series after such fallout with Konami, and yet his name remains closely associated with the Silent Hill IP as a whole. This connection was brought directly under the spotlight once more when YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead (who also leaked the sequel to 2018’s God of War well before its reveal) claimed that Silent Hills is in development for PS5 from Kojima Productions.
As fans continue to grow more dizzy with each new rumor and leak, it seems that only more fuel is added to the fire with more bizarre occurrences. During an interview earlier this year, Silent Hill series composer Akira Yamaoka seemed to be hinting at an upcoming project, mentioning to expect news by the summer and that fans of his past work should be excited.
Much like anything else mentioned, it is important to manage expectations and speculation, however eyebrows were especially raised when the same Akira Yamaoka interview was pulled down not long after being posted. Konami denies it had anything to do with the article being removed, but fans can’t seem to shake the specific references that Yamaoka made to his prior work, with the most famous among them arguably being Silent Hill.
Not long after the Yamaoka interview debacle, even more Silent Hill rumors began to surface when Bloober Team teased an upcoming horror game on a pre-existing franchise with a well known gaming publisher. Considering past efforts from the studio, such as Blair Witch and The Medium, are similar to Silent Hill both tonally and stylistically, expectations that the team were asked to work on a new game in the long running horror series are understandable.
There are of course, many horror IP’s in the gaming industry, but the rumor was again given weight. Not long after reports were mounting that Konami was partnering with multiple studios to develop Silent Hill games, Bloober Team was once again being mentioned. With leaks and rumors continuing to creep up on players at such a consistent pace, it seems like a return to the haunting world of Silent Hill may indeed be on the horizon. As for when it will officially be revealed is what remains shrouded in a thick fog of mystery.
Two new Silent Hill games are rumored to be in development.
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