Three video games, a movie, and an interactive streaming series will all be released as part of the iconic psychological horror franchise.
Silent Hill is reopening to tourists after spending ten years in exile, so aficionados of brutal psychological terror can finally pack their bags. Wednesday night, Konami revealed two new adventures, Silent Hill Townfall and Silent Hill F, as well as a remake of the beloved sequel Silent Hill 2. Additionally mentioned were Silent Hill Ascension, an interactive live stream series, and Return to Silent Hill, a new movie tie-in.
The Polish company Bloober Team, famed for horror films including The Medium and Blair Witch, is working on the remake. Akira Yamaoka, the composer, and Masahiro Ito, a concept artist best known for creating Silent Hill’s most infamous monster, are among other important members of the original Silent Hill development team who are also involved.
Bloober Team’s creative director, Mateusz Lenart, discussed this during an interview that was included in the presentation. He said that while the team wanted to maintain the atmosphere of the original game, some aspects had to be updated for the modern era, such as switching from a third-person camera to a “over-the-shoulder” perspective. He said, “We want the game to leave the same lasting impression that the original left 21 years ago.” Additional information was provided in a post on the PlayStation blog, noting that the game was created using the brand-new Unreal Engine 5.
There was no word on when the game would be released, but it will be available on PC and PS5, with PS5 having a 12-month exclusivity period.
No Code, the Glasgow-based studio behind the frightening adventures Stories Untold and Observation, is working with the publisher Annapurna Interactive to create the first of the two new Silent Hill games, named Townfall. Little was revealed in a teaser trailer that showed a vintage portable TV set, and neither the release date nor the platforms were mentioned. The second new game, Silent Hill F, is being written by Ryukishi07, the creator of the visual novel series When They Cry. It is set in Japan. Another teaser implied a fusion of Swedish folk horror movie Midsommar and Japanese folklore. Once more, no publication date was mentioned.
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There were also two more spin-offs launched. The director of the first Silent Hill film, Christophe Gans, will soon release a film titled Return to Silent Hill. A number of media businesses are working together on an interactive streaming series called Silent Hill Ascension that will allow viewers to alter the direction of the plot as it develops. These companies include interactive livestream expert Genvid and the JJ Abrams-founded Bad Robot.
Producer Motoi Okamoto stated during the transmission that Konami is collaborating with various developers from around the world on additional, as-yet-unannounced Silent Hill projects.
Since the release of the badly rated Silent Hill: Downpour in 2012, the Silent Hill series has been dormant for a decade. At that time, Kojima Productions, the company founded by Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, began work on a revival of the series titled Silent Hills. A brief demo called PT, which was released in 2014 and is regarded as the scariest video game experience ever made, served as the project’s announcement. But a year later, Silent Hills was reportedly cancelled because to low morale and unfavourable working conditions at Konami Studios.
It appeared for a while that Konami was more focused on its wildly successful pachinko machine business than the erratic video game market. However, rumours of the publisher reviving three of its major video game franchises—Metal Gear, Castlevania, and Silent Hill—started to spread two years ago. Numerous projects and production companies were named, but there were no official confirmations. At the time, rumours on gaming news websites suggested that more than one new Silent Hill game, possibly a reboot or continuation of the main series, would be in the works.
However, a tweet from the official Silent Hill account that promised an official announcement video didn’t appear until Sunday night. It began with the alluring phrase “In your restless dreams, do you see that town?” Despite Konami’s 10-year absence from Silent Hill, the 45-minute stream made it very clear how committed the company was to that unsettling small town.