The cancellation of Silent Hills still rankles, more than a year later, and almost two years since we first learned of its existence. The game, which was made available in the form of a playable teaser, was going to be a reboot of the classic survival horror franchise, helmed by auteur Hideo Kojima, collaborating with Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus. In other words, it sounded like it was going to be the perfect horror title- but then Konami had to go and cancel it.
In a lot of ways, the reputation of Silent Hills has only grown since its cancellation, since it will now perennially be a ‘what if’ scenario, a mythical, mystical legend that people will build up in their heads based on their extrapolated expectations based on P.T. On the other hand, Silent Hills‘ very existence and subsequent cancellation saw a revival of horror games, as developers of all sorts flocked to fill the void with their own games.
We decided to ask one of those developers, the team behind the Friday the 13th game, what their take on the cancellation of Silent Hills was. Overall, it sounds like they have come to terms with it and made peace with it.
“There are lots of team members who are fans of the Silent Hill games. Of course those who are fans are disappointed by the cancellation, but we know that business decisions need to be made for any number of reasons and hope that more Silent Hill games will be made in the future,” they said, in an exclusive interview GamingBolt had with Illfonic lead producer David Langeliers, president and co-founder Charles Brungardt, lead artist Shane Stoneman and producer Bryce Glover.
Business decisions do need to be made, of course. Sadly, they are often at odds with artistic vision.