After beingabsent from this generation of consoles, one of the most iconic horror game franchises may be returning to haunt players again. A leaker has revealed that Konami is looking to develop two newSilent Hillgames to revitalize the series.
TheSilent Hillfranchise has been largely dormant for years. The series' last releases were in 2012. Konami published the most recent entry in the main series (Silent Hill: Downpour) alongside a collection of remastered games and an RPG spinoff. If the leak is correct, this is Konami’s second major attempt to rebootSilent Hill.
Previously, ex-Konami developer Hideo Kojima attempted to revive the franchise. His first demo game,PT, generated a lot of excitement for the full-length reboot,Silent Hills.However, duringthe video game auteur’s clash with Konami,Silent Hillswas cancelled andPTwas removed from the PlayStation Store.
RELATED:Big Franchises That Completely Skipped This Generation
According to Twitter user AestheticGamer, Konami began searching for developers to work on twonewSilent Hillprojectsin 2017. While one game would be a part of the main series and provide a “soft reboot” to the franchise, the other would be an episodic, role-playing game that would take cues from Telltale Games andUntil Dawn.Both games would be released “alongside” each other. AestheticGamer concluded his thread by hoping that Konami had found a strong developer and supplied it with the necessary budget to make the games, and speculating that at least one of the games would be announced in 2020.
This leak has not been corroborated by other sources or confirmed by Konami. It’s also hardly the first rumor surrounding theSilent Hillfranchise. In December, for example, fans speculated thatHideo Kojima was in talks with Konamito complete his proposedSilent Hillsgame. However, the leak’s description of two games, and Konami’s supposed plan to release them in the same year, sounds very similar to Konami’s release schedule in 2012, the last year thatSilent Hillwas truly active. That year, Konami released both a traditional horror game and a more experimental, RPG-style game. If the leak is correct, the developer could be attempting to utilize the same strategies it used previously.
Although players might be understandably excited forSilent Hill’s potential return, it’s best to not jump to conclusions until Konami has confirmed its plans for the franchise. There are stillseveral major obstacles for aSilent Hillrevival, and the speculation may turn out to be false.
However, despite only releasing aSilent Hillslot machine in recent years,Konami renewed its trademarks for the seriesin 2019. It’s clear that the developer still wishes to hold onto its rights toSilent Hill.Only time will tell what Konami has in store for the franchise.
