The announcement that Bloober Team was developing the long-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake certainly caught the attention of many with reactions ranging from excitement to curiosity to trepidation. As you would imagine though, Konami itself had discussions with number of developers about remaking the survival horror classic before entering into a partnership with Bloober Team.
That’s as per Bloober Team’s Maciej Głomb, who is serving as lead producer on the Silent Hill 2 remake. In a recent interview with GamingBolt, Głomb confirmed that Konami had been in talks with “other studios” regarding a potential remake of Silent Hill 2 before giving Bloober Team the go-ahead for the project, adding the Japanese company took stock of the fact that the Polish studio has several people in its team “who know the original game inside-out”.
“To my knowledge, Konami has indeed talked to other studios about the idea of remaking Silent Hill 2. In my opinion, rightfully so, because such a game should be taken care of by the most passionate developers, none else,” Głomb said. “The fact that they chose us was both a great distinction and a massive motivation boost. We have people who know the original game inside-out and I think Konami noticed that pretty quickly.”
Of course, Silent Hill veterans Masahiro Ito (art director and creature designer) and Akira Yamaoka (composer) are also working on the project alongside Bloober Team – in fact, as per the studio, they have “taken an active part” in the game’s development.
Głomb also went on to explain that though Bloober Team was initially hesitant about agreeing to take on the project owing to “the weight of the responsibility it comes with”, the studio ultimately decided that it “couldn’t imagine anyone else doing the remake”.
“As you can imagine, when they approached us with the offer we hesitated for a while, considering the weight of the responsibility it comes with,” he said. “At the same time, we couldn’t imagine anyone else doing the remake other than us; we were sure we will do everything in our power to give it the treatment it deserves. In hindsight, it was a good call.”
In the same interview, Głomb also revealed that Konami wanted the remake to be “as close as it can” to the original, which means the upcoming game won’t mess too much with the “established narrative core” of Silent Hill 2. The producer has also spoken about Resident Evil 2’s 2019 remake and how it influenced Bloober Team during development.
Our full interview with Bloober Team will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.
Silent Hill 2 is in development for PS5 and PC.