Silent Hill 2‘s remake has been quite successful for both Konami as well as developer Bloober Team. In a series of posts on X, producer Motoi Okamoto spoke about Konami’s decision to go with the studio behind games like Layers of Fear and The Medium for the Silent Hill 2 remake.
In his post, Okamoto spoke about how Bloober Team had plenty of experience with the horror genre, and how important this aspect was for Konami. He mentions that this, more than having general knowledge about game design, was what drove the choice for Konami.
He brings up the idea that, regardless of how good a studio might be at its game design ideas, you wouldn’t go with such a studio to make a fighting game, for example, if they didn’t have experience in making games of that genre. Horror has similar requirements, and Konami didn’t want to work with a studio that didn’t have experience with the genre, and would have to start from scratch.
“No matter how broad a game design expert’s knowledge is, they won’t be hired to work on a fighting game if they have no experience developing fighting games,” wrote Okamoto on X (translation via Automaton Media). “The same goes for horror. But then, with companies requiring such genre-specific experience, you realize that everyone has to start out as a novice for the given genre at some point. Nowadays, indie development has become the way to overcome that.”
Okamoto continued by saying that, while Bloober Team’s past experience with horror didn’t account for the action game requirements that Silent Hill 2 had, Konami was still confident that the studio could pull it off.
“In modern times, regardless of the genre, if there’s passion, one should be creating something, and by properly evaluating that, it should be possible to discern whether someone can take on genre fiction,” wrote Okatmoto (translation via X).
Konami had revealed in its earnings reports earlier this month that, thanks to the Silent Hill 2 remake, it had achieved increased sales and operating profits. Konami’s other games had also done well, with Professional Baseball Spirits 2024-2025 and eBaseball: MLB PRO SPIRIT also getting shout-outs.
Silent Hill 2, on the other hand, has reportedly sold more than 2 million copies as of January 2025 across PC and PS5. These sales figures account for worldwide shipments, as well as digital sales on both platforms.
Silent Hill 2 has been positively received in both commercial and critical terms. Even our own review of the game was incredibly positive, giving it a score of 10 out of 10. Silent Hill 2 also went on to become our game of the year for 2024. You can read more about that here.
Earlier this week, Konami had also confirmed that it would continue its partnership with Bloober Team on future projects. The studio cited the success of the Silent Hill 2 remake as being the “foundation for signing another agreement for a new project.”
Silent Hill 2‘s remake is available on PC and PS5.
それで言えば、SILENT HILL2の開発をBloober Teamに任せたのは、彼らがインディーでLayers of Fearなどの数々のホラー作品を手掛けてきたジャンルフィクションの「経験値」を買ったからだし、アクションゲームの経験が不足しているという「課題」は乗り越えられるとジャッジした、という話。…
— 岡本基 (@obakemogura) February 26, 2025
