While it might be hard to deny that Konami has been on a roll with its newer entries in the Silent Hill franchise, series producer Motoi Okamoto has confirmed that the company originally announced three projects in the franchise together to show its commitment. As caught and translated by Automaton Media, Okamoto took to social media to talk about the Silent Hill franchise, and Konami’s commitment to bringing the series back with new releases.
He noted that, while Konami could have simply gone with an approach that would allow it to “test the waters” for Silent Hill returning with a single release or remake, this wasn’t what the company wanted to do. Rather, Konami has been quite serious about reviving the franchise, which in turn would involve both a remake as well as a new entry in the series.
“Three years ago, in 2022, we announced three titles: Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill f, and Silent Hill: Townfall,” wrote Okamoto. “We didn’t want to just announce a single remake to ‘test the waters.’ We wanted people to feel how serious we were about reviving the series. Developing a remake and a new title simultaneously naturally involves risks, but we wanted to convey our commitment first and foremost.”
The risky move has quite clearly paid off for Konami, with both Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, as well as NeoBards’ Silent Hill f seeing quite a bit of critical and commercial success. He noted that players not already familiar with the series wouldn’t have engaged with a new entry as deeply if they didn’t think that there was a future for the series.
“Only when a new game is announced can the future of a series be seen,” he wrote. “Users won’t feel motivated to engage with an IP unless they can sense it has a future. If the company takes a wait-and-see approach, so will the players. The company needs to show how serious it is so that users can get genuinely excited. I think that’s only fair.”
Konami recently announced that the Silent Hill 2 remake from last year had sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. This, in turn, has helped the overall Silent Hill series hit a new sales milestone of over 10 million units. The most recent entry in the franchise was Silent Hill f which came out just last month. Developed by NeoBards and featuring writing by Ryukishi07, the title has been described quite positively by fans of the horror genre.
Earlier this month, voice actor Konatsu Kato – who plays Silent Hill f protagonist Hinako Shimizu – spoke about her time in the recording booth, as well as how she was emotionally affected by the writing and performance. While noting that the recording started off “smoothly,” Kato then revealed that she started asking herself questions, especially when it came time to having recording with her own character.
“Since I was playing Hinako, and the other actor was also playing Hinako, I’d get confused about who I was—both in the role and in reality,” she explained. “There were times back then when tears would just come out even though I wasn’t thinking about anything. The confusion grew in proportion to the “time spent facing each other,” so I remember having days when I felt like I might lose my mind.”
For more details about the recent entries in the Silent Hill franchise, check out our reviews of Silent Hill 2’s remake and Silent Hill f. In the meantime, Bloober Team has confirmed that it has begun working on a remake of the original Silent Hill.
