Freedom Fighters 2

IO Interactive delivered one of the most enjoyable shooters with 2003’s Freedom Fighters, a game that beautifully meshes tactical elements along with pure adrenaline-pumping action and an emotionally charged narrative of overthrowing oppression – and fans absolutely lapped it up. There have been scant rumblings of a sequel over the years, but nothing much has come to fruition. While the IP continues to be under the possession of now-independent IO Interactive, the chances of a full-fledged sequel happening anytime soon are extremely slim. 

Sleeping Dogs 2

Sleeping Dogs might have felt like yet another one of those cheap GTA clones, but United Front Games’ open-world offerings were as much a product of their creativity as it was derivative of Rockstar’s works. Wei Shen’s story of navigating through the criminal underbelly of Hong Kong is a consistently thrilling ride that’s punctuated with great gameplay variety and fun open-world activities, and the ideas were ripe to be built upon with a sequel. United Front Games had some ambitious plans in place, but those were gone to waste as the developer closed doors permanently in 2012 – leaving us with faint hopes that will probably never come true.

Star Wars 1313

There is no shortage of Star Wars-based games in the current market scenario, but it’s hard not to reminisce about the canceled Star Wars 1313 project. The game was being developed by LucasArts themselves at one point, and it would be telling the story of Boba Fett in his early days of navigating the galaxy. Initial showings of the game looked impressive with its cinematic gameplay and faithful rendition of the popular sci-fi setting, but the project was put on hold when Disney purchased the studio – putting the final nail in its coffin.

Agent

Rockstar is behind some of the best games of the last couple of generations, and the studio is also behind the mysterious vaporware that was Agent. First announced all the way in 2007, Agent was supposed to be an open-world game with elements of espionage and fans were understandably excited to see what was in store. Months and years passed with little in the name of concrete information on the game, and Agent slowly faded into the void with no hopes of emerging back once agai

Bully 2

Since we are on the topic of canceled Rockstar games, we should also discuss Bully 2. The original Bully felt like a breath of fresh air with its school setting and a narrative that let you experience the highs and lows of a teenager living in a boarding school, and those ideas were ripe to be built upon with a sequel. While nothing was ever announced in an official capacity, there have been several rumors and reports that state that Bully 2 was at least in the cards at some point if not in active development. Rumors continue to churn out even to this date, but the chances of anything coming to fruition are pretty low.

Scalebound

PlatinumGames has rightfully established its reputation as one of the best names when it comes to developing action games brimming with style and substance, and Scalebound felt emblematic of the studio’s biggest strengths. Scalebound’s idea of using dragons as your companions was enough to send fan expectations off the charts, and initial showings were looking really promising. However, development wasn’t the smoothest and the team faced several problems in trying to create a cohesive experience with online functionality built into the game eventually leading to Microsoft canceling the project altogether. It’s a shame that such an amazing idea was let go to waste, and Scalebound could have genuinely turned out to be a great time if PlatinumGames was given the creative freedom they wished for.

Silent Hills

Konami’s Silent Hill franchise is set to make a grand comeback with several new entries set to release in the near future, but we can’t help but think about the canceled Silent Hills project. Silent Hills was Kojima’s take on the popular horror franchise, and the playable teaser was more than enough to leave fans salivating for the final release. But the infamous Konami-Kojima breakout left the project in ruins, eventually leading to it being canned and our hopes and dreams unfulfilled. 

A New Metal Gear by Hideo Kojima

The Metal Gear Solid series has continued to deliver hit after hit with each new entry, and it continues to be one of the most revered franchises thanks to the incredible attention to detail that Kojima and the team have poured into each and every aspect of the experience. While the series is also making a comeback with the upcoming release of Delta Snake Eater, we would love to see another new Metal Gear directed by Kojima san himself, but the infamous Konami-Kojima break-up leaves little chance of that happening anytime soon.

 A New Burnout

Criterion’s Burnout series was one of the best arcade racers of its time, and its gameplay loop of crashing into rival cars and emphasizing a generally aggressive driving style was what helped the franchise stand out from the crowd. But with EA eventually moving Criterion to work on the Need For Speed series, the Burnout IP was kept hostage and it slowly turned dormant over the years. Without a shadow of a doubt, there are more than thousands of fans who are hoping for a revival, but the current state of EA and its obsession with continuing to invest in NFS means that a new Burnout game isn’t likely to come out anytime soon. 

Portal 3

The Portal games continue to be some of the best puzzle games of all time, thanks to an ingenious central mechanic that forms the basis of all gameplay and the witty writing that came along with it. Many games have tried to create similar experiences since then, but none have managed to capture the magic of Valve’s works – which has left us craving for a potential Portal 3 even after all this time. But given the current stance of Valve’s game development division, it seems like Portal 3 would probably never see the light of day. 

New Dino Crisis 

Dino Crisis was very much a product of its time, a game confident in its ability to deliver a consistently thrilling experience despite being based on a concept so weird. We have had some really fond memories of shooting down dinosaurs with machine guns, and we would really love to get a new entry with the same level of eccentricity and fun that is so characteristic of the franchise. However, it feels highly unlikely that the developer would be making much effort to breathe new life into this now stagnant IP. And no, Exoprimal doesn’t count.

Deep Down

Yet another one of the developer’s failed projects, Deep Down was put forth as one of the PS4’s launch titles. Deep Down featured impressive graphics for its time, and the concept of working your way through procedurally generated dungeons with friends sounded like a really fun idea that could have genuinely turned out to be a big hit. Development wasn’t obviously the smoothest, which eventually led to the game being delayed to an indefinite date. We still think about what Deep Down could have been, but all we can do is hope.

Titanfall 3

Titanfall 2 was a great game that y featured one of the best FPS campaigns of all time but it failed to capture much of an audience since it was sandwiched between the highly overrated Battlefield and a Call of Duty series- making it a commercial failure. The future of the franchise already looked bleak after that failure, and now that the developer has been focusing majorly on Star Wars – a potential Titanfall 3 is most likely not on the cards. 

The Next Dark Souls

It’s safe to say that FromSoftware has birthed an entire genre with Dark Souls, and the entire trilogy remains one of the best experiences of recent memory. The developer has already moved on to bigger experiences with the likes of Elden Ring, but there’s undoubtedly a void for a new Dark Souls game. Between this and the fact that the trilogy brought a definitive end to the endless cycle of fire, a new game coming out feels like a distant dream that probably won’t come true.

Prototype 3

Radical Entertainment’s Prototype was a really great open-world game that provided a really satisfying power fantasy as you mow down entire squadrons of enemies in moments unnoticed, and those elements were taken to the next level with Prototype 2. Radical Entertainment was slowly devolved into a support studio for Activision’s bigger franchises before it was closed sometime in 2014, leaving the dreams of any potential Prototype 3 dead in the dust.

Developed by the unknown 7780s Studio, it actually went live on the PlayStation Store right before Gamescom on August 12th 2014. P.T. was short for “playable teaser” and greeted players with a seemingly innocuous title screen set in a mysterious forest. The “game” itself, however, took place in a strange hallway that continuously repeated itself, looping several times. It soon became apparent, however, that each loop presented something new, slowly unraveling in unique and horrifying ways.

After solving the various puzzles in the teaser, fans discovered an announcement for Silent Hills at the end. The horror series had seen its fair share of disappointments over the years but things were seemingly turning around. Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and fantasy horror film director Guillermo del Toro were attached to the project, which starred The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus.

And while there was exceptional buzz over the prospect of a new title, P.T. had grown into its own media phenomenon. Video game demos had been a thing forever but P.T. was something else entirely – a teaser that was its own entity, completely separate from the main game. The photorealistic visuals meshed with the uncomfortable atmosphere; the intriguingly disturbing story of Lisa and her family; and the “walking simulator” gameplay that still challenged the player to solve its various, cryptic mysteries were all praised. It also tapped into the community aspect of horror gaming as fans worked together to solve its puzzles, interpret the story and much more.

Even if the first-person perspective was nothing new for horror games, P.T. had this freshness to it – of the player being truly unaware what lay around the next corner. Or right behind the player if they turned around at the wrong time. What could Silent Hills offer, especially with Kojima and del Toro at the helm? It was truly a new beginning for the franchise.

However, it wasn’t to be.

Several months later in March 2015, reports emerged of Hideo Kojima leaving Konami with his name removed from several Metal Gear products. Rumors of a falling out, coupled with the rebranding of Kojima Productions to Konami Digital Entertainment and departure of several senior staff, raised significant questions about the future of Silent Hills. Konami would later confirm that while “future Silent Hill projects” were “currently underway” – which is freaking hilarious in hindsight – Silent Hills would not be continued. Reedus and del Toro tweeted their disappointment for the same, and the latter continues to lambast Konami to this day for its decision.

As if all of that weren’t bad enough, the publisher made the decision to remove P.T. from the PlayStation Store in April. This prompted an expected amount of backlash because not only was it being delisted, but those who previously played the teaser would be blocked from redownloading it. In a series of recent tweets, Pearl L, who worked as a first-party lead for Konami at the time, revealed that she helped set P.T. up on the storefront, “fake publisher and everything.”

“And I was the one who had to call Sony and ask them to take it down and block redownloads. That was a super fun conversation”. Describing the removal as a “tough situation all around,” Pearl described the difficulties in its removal. “We’d already gone through a lot to get it set up, and got a lot of operational exceptions. And then to add the request to block redownload? More engineering workarounds. It was exciting to see people hype about it and see the work pay off! But in a way also not.”

When the date had come and gone, PS4 consoles that had the demo installed were selling for $1000 to $1500 online. Even if Konami didn’t want to advertise a game that was cancelled, the removal was still frustrating.

However, despite efforts to effectively erase it from public memory, P.T.’s influence was still strong. Several developers announced their own P.T.-inspired horror titles from Allison Road and Layers of Fear (which is getting another sequel next year) to Visage and the recently released MADiSON. Fans would also develop their own remakes, whether it was in Project Spark on Xbox (before that was canned), Unreal Engine and even in Media Molecule’s Dreams.

Even the initial reveal of Capcom’s Resident Evil 7: biohazard with its first-person gameplay and psychological horror had elicited comparisons to the teaser, even though designer Jordan Amaro – who was the level designer for Silent Hills – noted that the latter would have been “quite different.” References would also be seen in other titles including Kojima’s own Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Death Stranding Director’s Cut.

The teaser was subsequently data-mined, revealing all kinds of interesting secrets years later, like the conditions for Lisa attacking the player, models which ended up being unused, and even a map of Silent Hill outside of the never-ending hallway. Even as new horror titles emerge and older franchises are revived, P.T. remains a significant milestone in the genre all these years later.

As for any “newer” Silent Hill projects, Konami has yet to officially announce anything. There have been a fair number of rumors though. Kojima working on a reboot for Sony in collaboration with Konami. A Japanese developer reportedly working on a new title. Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team working on a Silent Hill 2 remake. The list goes on and on. The only real proof of a new Silent Hill were some concept art images from a 2020 title that leaked this year (and we only know they’re legitimate due to their removal via DMCA).

It’s easy to look back on P.T. as something gimmicky or even misleading. Kojima himself admitted that the actual Silent Hills had no relation to the teaser (even if the player character was modeled after Reedus, as dataminers discovered). Despite all of this, it was a radical concept and at least represented Kojima’s approach to horror, relying more on psychological fear and less on gore to create a terrifying atmosphere. How it would have worked in a full game remains one of gaming’s biggest “What if” scenarios.

Pearl’s comments perhaps best sum up what it was like at the time for fans. “It was definitely really fun to be plotting this secret cool thing for the fans. It was amazing to see everyone come together to try to figure out the experience and see them come away with so much love for it! I’m super grateful I got to be a part of that in some small way.”

For those who were there at the time, either furtively playing the demo and being left traumatized at the hands of Lisa (especially on dying), or watching people play through it, P.T. remains a special experience.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The falling out between Konami and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima remains a mystery to this day. While reports have floated about concerning, among other things, the budget for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain going way overboard, there’s no official word on what caused Kojima’s dismissal. A recent report by GameBlog.fr indicated that the director taking funds out of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain’s budget to create P.T., that too without informing higher-ups in Konami, was a core reason.

Kojima Productions, which Kojima founded after departing Konami, has issued a statement on the same. Jay Boor, Global Head of Marketing and Communications, said on Twitter that while the company “normally does not comment on rumors or speculation”, it confirmed that the article was “categorically false.” When asked if he could elaborate on which parts of the report were false, Boor said, “When there is a credible source, on record, at the center of these types of stories, then I will happily make time to elaborate.”

Kojima Productions released Death Stranding for the PS4 in November 2019. As per Kojima himself, the game was profitable. The developer is currently working on bringing Death Stranding to PC on July 14th with 505 Games as its publisher. However, Kojima noted that his next project was currently in the planning stage. As always, stay tuned for more information and updates.

"KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS normally does not comment on rumors or speculation, however we can confirm that the article recently posted on https://t.co/zDfUnEnnip is categorically false."
– Jay Boor, Global Head of Marketing and Communications https://t.co/d3o5rV0K0O

— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Eng) (@KojiPro2015_EN) June 24, 2020

It is, and I appreciate your question. When there is a credible source, on record, at the center of these types of stories, then I will happily make time to elaborate.

Until then, we will continue to be focused on launching #DeathStranding for PC. July 14 is nearly here!

— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Eng) (@KojiPro2015_EN) June 24, 2020

Whatever that next project will be, at this point, will likely stay shrouded the depths of secrecy for at least a little while longer, but surely with the unfinished tale of whatever Silent Hills was going to be likely still scratching around in the back of Kojima’s mind, the odds are good that his next game will be of the Survival Horror variety. He clearly has a soft spot for the genre, and has shown his acumen for pulling it off. Assumptions and logical hunches aren’t all we have though, last November the revered game designer tweeted some musings about what he is seemingly up to:

“As to make the scariest horror game, I’ll watch the scary movies in order to awaken my horror soul. THE EYE is the Thai horror movie I rent when making P.T. but was too scary to finish watching. The package is scary so I rented the disc only. Will I be able to finish watching?” 

Outside of a couple of translation side effects that mess with the grammar, it’s fairly obvious what Kojima-san is saying here. It doesn’t take a forensics expert to see that he is at least considering working on a horror game, if he’s not already doing so. Along with the text of the tweet he also included two pictures of what appears to be a physical copy of the movie The Eye but not the American version with Jessica Alba, no, this is the original 2002 Hong-Kong and Singaporean horror film directed by the Pang brothers. A quick reverse google search of the images turns up nothing, so that points to the idea that these images were possibly taken by Kojima himself, which must mean he’s serious about watching this movie. The link between Kojima and The Eye is one that we’ve seen before.

With P.T. being heavily inspired by The Eye’s tone and feel, at least in terms of its visual representation, and much of the latter half of the Playable Teaser being populated by spinning eyeballs all over the place, it seems this is a link he’s likely trying to stick with, so we can probably expect a similar tone with this next horror game, assuming that’s what we’re going to get.

And for fans of P.T. like myself, that’s a very exciting proposition. P.T. was not only an incredibly scary and fun experience that succeeded at frightening and disturbing it’s players more than most full-fledged actual horror games, but it set gaming on fire after its release with its claustrophobic setting and outrageously unsettling imagery, which took some cues from asain horror films as well as some twisted ideas deep in the untapped recesses of Kojima’s own mind.

With horror games starting to feel somewhat derivative of each other with the Amnesia and Outlast tropes getting recycled for the last several years, there seems to be a strong case supporting the idea that gaming really needs a full horror game from Kojima-san for several reasons.

Most obviously is just the fact that P.T. clearly wasn’t meant to stand alone forever. It was just a taste of what was supposed to be a new Silent Hill game. As a series that has lost its way even worse than James Sunderland lost himself in the fog of Silent Hill’s streets, Hideo Kojima was the perfect choice to bring something of value to the franchise while bringing it back to it’s atmospheric and intangible roots. Since the falling out between Kojima-san and his employer of over 20 years, Konami, went down the way it did, Silent Hills was sadly never realized to it’s potential. Fans of the series are still to this day, left with the Playstation Vita dungeon crawler as the most recent cannon entry to the series.

With many more recent discoveries about P.T. being made that seem to point to much more detail in the world than the player even having access to during the teaser, it’s now beyond obvious that there were certainly extensive plans for this adventure. However, whatever those twists and turns were supposed to be, clearly aren’t going to happen now. So to have Hideo exume whatever those ideas were, to whatever extent that he can without triggering a lawsuit from Konami, would be a nightmare come true for horror fans everywhere. It might even serve as some form of closure for Kojima himself, as I’m sure he still probably feels some type of way about the abrupt career shift and how it all went down.

But while Kojima-san may or may not need this horror game to exist for himself, the horror scene in gaming certainly needs it the most. We are all thankful that the genre was revitalized with the slew of excellent first person horror games over the last decade or so, but that format has largely been brought to its logical conclusion several times over now.

With games like Alien Isolation and SOMA serving as nice examples of the pinnacle of this style of horror game, and not much since then really topping them, the genre once again seems primed to benefit from another dose of energy and new ideas. Hideo Kojima could be the one to reanimate the horror genre, much like what he was originally attempting to do with the Silent Hill series. With his connections to hollywood and other circles of excellent actors around the world, as well as Guillermo del Toro, it’s tough to imagine anybody else more well-positioned to take the horror community by storm and deliver a ghostly knock-out punch to everyone who enjoys it. An added bonus is that, those who weren’t in love with what Death Stranding was trying to do would probably see this new game as a reset or sorts for Kojima as it is a totally different type of game, so he wouldn’t be alienating anybody.

So between the tweet, his obvious love for P.T., and the obvious love of P.T. that horror fans have, there is little else that needs to be said to make the case that Hideo absolutely should pursue this path for his next game. It would not only sell well right off the bat but it would do so much good for the horror scene with it’s own unique ideas but also by inspiring many more experiences to come after it.

That seems to be how the horror genre survives; Every once in a blue moon, one big earth-shattering game comes along and shifts the tide, and other games follow up with their own shades of that until the next tectonic transformation presents itself. Not only could Kojima make that next evolution for the horror genre, if he really pulls all of his connections and experience together, it could be one of the best things to happen to the genre, and to gaming, since Resident Evil and Silent Hill revolutionized it their way 20 years ago.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Justice Online Player Loses $1.4 Million Character

Last month, a player for NetEase’s Justice Online sued the company and his friend. Why? Well, he had a character that was worth a whopping $1.4 million and gave it to his friend, who proceeded to sell it for just $552. Everything was settled by NetEase who gave the character back but the man in question had to pay $13,000 in damages to whomever purchased it online. Moral of the story? Well, there are many morals to take away from this so take your pick.

When it comes to infamous projects that never were, Silent Hills is probably at the very top of the list. After an inventive teaser in P.T., the game would have been a revival of the horror brand helmed by Hideo Kojima. The game never officially entered development before Kojima and Konami parted ways and Konami largely stopped creating major console titles. The question will always be, ‘what could this thing have been?’ Since Kojima ended up not creating a horror game after forming his own studio (though Death Stranding does get a bit spooky) we very well may never know. But today we did get a potential piece of information about a unique feature the game would have had.

Alanah Pearce, formerly of IGN and now working at Funhaus and Inside Gaming, was answering some questions about what she’d heard about projects that had not been revealed yet or cancelled and when asked about Silent Hills, she said she had been told that the game would in some way interact with your e-mail and phone number, sending you messages from characters in the game even when you weren’t actively playing. That seems like it could be both creepy and rather annoying all at the same time.

Of course, we know that the game didn’t get very far into even pre-development, as Junji Ito revealed earlier in the year. So whether or not this feature would have even made it into the game is anyone’s guess, but it’s interesting to think about all the same.

I heard that Silent Hills would require you to sign a waiver before playing because it would somehow interact with your real-world self, like by sending you emails or text messages as characters from the game even when you weren’t actively playing. https://t.co/aWezrmYA7v

— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) November 19, 2019

Silent Hills has become somewhat of a myth as time has gone on. A playable teaser, P.T., was released, which came with a hidden video at the end that showed a brief snippet of Norman Reedus walking out into what is assumed to be the titular town of Silent Hill. To be directed by Hideo Kojima, the game instantly shot up many wishlists. It would have seen involvement by two big names, one being film director Guillermo del Toro (who is working with Kojima now on Death Stranding and was pretty vocal about his feelings on Silent Hills’ cancellation), with the other being Junji Ito, legendary horror manga writer known for his short-form “body horror” stories that are noted for their gruesome and unsettling imagery.

It was never clear what role Ito would have or how he was involved. As you can see from the tweets below, Ito spoke at the Toronto Comics Art Festival and detailed the casual way he was invited to the project by Kojima, how he didn’t even hear about the cancellation from Kojima or Konami but through other sources, and he hadn’t committed a single sketch for the project till that time (thanks to Twitter user @MinovskyArticle for transcribing the talk).

Maybe the most interesting aspect is it shows how little Silent Hills as a project actually seemed to exist. It’s never been clear exactly how much development had went into the game beyond P.T., but when you consider the guy who was meant to be leading the monster design didn’t submit a single sketch or idea, it seems to imply that very little work was actually done- if any.

Kojima is now currently working on Death Stranding with Sony, a game that also seems to barely exist since we’ve gotten nothing but vague teasers for years. Perhaps Junji Ito will get to work on a video game someday and unleash nightmares on us all (if you aren’t familiar with his work, brace yourself before you search for some, because it is some horrifying stuff). Either way, it looks like Silent Hills is destined to be nothing more than a myth lost to time.

Junji Ito asked about Silent Hills.

“I don’t know anything about games. I don’t play them. I am afraid if I get into them I’ll miss deadlines. I have never played Silent Hill. I have known Hideo Kojima for 20 years. He is a nice older brother type.”

— Minovsky (@MinovskyArticle) May 10, 2019

Kojima and Del Toro approached Ito around the time Pacific Rim came out. “I told them I know nothing about games. Kojima told me I would be fine. Del Toro gave me tickets to Pacific Rim. It was excellent.”

— Minovsky (@MinovskyArticle) May 10, 2019

“Kojima was at Konami back then. I came to a meeting and Del Toro hugged me. It turns out Del Toro is a big gamer. Del Toro wanted the game to be in one location and keep the horror in the player’s face in that way.”

— Minovsky (@MinovskyArticle) May 10, 2019

“Once the Silent Hills meeting was over, we went to karaoke. I didn’t hear anything after that. I heard that the plan got scrapped through outside sources. I have seen Kojima and Del Toro since. I never started designing monsters. Nothing exists. There are no roughs or sketches.”

— Minovsky (@MinovskyArticle) May 10, 2019

This was an interesting development, as not much was expected of Team Silent, as they were largely a group of developers and artists that, for one reason or another, under-performed in other projects and were essentially lumped together into their own team where they were regularly ignored and told to be “silent”, hence the somewhat insulting name of the team. But nevertheless, Team Silent took that pejorative and managed to convert it into one of the biggest hits on the PlayStation, spawning a long-running series, pumping new interest into a maturing genre, and affecting video games forever.

Since Silent Hill was released so late in the PlayStation’s lifespan, the sequel was to be released on it’s successor; the PlayStation 2. Here we would see yet another timeless classic from Team Silent in Silent Hill 2. This game eclipsed the first in every possible way, and really pushed the boundaries of how dark and mature the themes could get in video games, all while also selling quite well and justifying the development of several more instalments. The PlayStation 2 also saw the release of Silent Hill 3 and 4, which were quite good as well, although most would agree ultimately fell short of the masterpiece that was the second game. Still, the franchise was plenty popular after the 4th game. So how do we get from those 4 great games to where we are now, where nobody even expects anything good from this franchise anymore? What the hell happened to Silent Hill?

Well, even though Team Silent was excited and willing to continue the franchise, the mid 2000’s was a time when Konami was undergoing a lot of changes, and unfortunately, one of the major pieces of collateral damage with Konami’s restructuring was the disbandment of Team Silent. Konami now wanted western developers to make the Silent Hill games, and former members of Team Silent found themselves scattered throughout Konami, not unlike how they were before the team was formed. Some prominent members went to work on the excellent Siren series, which would later scratch a similar itch for Silent Hill fans, many more members ended up in Kojima Productions, and some wound up  joining Grasshopper Manufacture. So the chances of the team working on another proper Silent Hill game were essentially zero, as several other western developers would now have their chance to carry on the legacy of the franchise that had now become a household name, and the results were mixed at best.

The first western team to have a crack at Silent Hill was Climax Studios. They were tasked with making an origins story that would land on the PSP and later get a port to the PlayStation 2. Silent Hill Origins, or Silent Hill Zero as it was known in Japan, was actually quite decent and despite a slightly more dedicated focus on combat, felt pretty much at home with the previous entries. Origins didn’t sell or review as well as the original games however, and this is mostly what fans point to as the beginning of the decline for the franchise. I don’t find that to be particularly fair to the game though, as it does mostly check the boxes of what makes a good Silent Hill game, albeit with less heart perhaps. The real decline began with the following game, Silent Hill Homecoming on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The game was roundly criticized for its boring main character, and dramatic change in style that would now forgo the tactic of the previous entries that would let an ominous thematic atmosphere slowly creep into the players’ head in favor of jump scares and gross-out moments that would come and go in an instant. At its core Homecoming wasn’t a bad game, it just wasn’t a good Silent Hill game. The next mainline entry, Silent Hill Downpour, did an admirable job taking risks and making creative changes to the formula, and perhaps was better than Homecoming in some ways, but ultimately this was not enough to keep long-time fans happy or capture the interest of many new ones, and since it was around this time that the completely botched HD remaster of the second and third game was released, and a couple of mediocre-at-best movie adaptations, it was an objectively bad time for the franchise. Morale was low for long time fans and many would give up on the series at this point. Thankfully newer survival horror games like Amnesia were making their own waves in the genre and it started to seem like maybe survival horror didn’t need Team Silent anymore. You could argue this time was “what happened” to Silent Hill, as it seemed like morale couldn’t get much lower for fans of the original games. Unfortunately, we could not have been more wrong about that.

Most gamers know the story of Silent Hills or P.T. at this point, so I won’t bore you with re-litigating all of that, but essentially, the whole world was teased with a Kojima-directed, Norman Reedus-starring, and Del Toro-advised first person Silent Hill game, and due to some major differences between Hideo Kojima and his bosses at Konami that finally came to the surface at the end of development of Metal Gear Solid 5, Kojima and his team had abruptly split with Konami after decades of work together. This of course resulted in the complete and total shutdown of Silent Hills, and perhaps the greatest cumulative sigh of disappointment the gaming community has ever experienced together.

If the release of a few mediocre movies and games weren’t what killed the franchise, then this surely did. Now, with so much universal animosity that gamers feel towards Konami as a result of the split with Kojima and the cancelling of Silent Hills, I doubt that a Silent Hill game would sell well, even if it was good, which is a terrible place for Konami to put their fans, and the franchise is now in the worst position it has ever been in. The silver lining to all of this is that now, Kojima is working with his team on what could very well be a modern science fiction classic in Death Stranding for the PlayStation 4, with a lot of the team he had at Konami, which perhaps still has a little of that Team Silent DNA still floating around in there, so maybe we’re better off as gamers to allow room for this new project to grow.

But the lingering question still remains; will Silent Hill ever make a true return? Or, like James Sunderland himself, swallowed up in the fog of his own mistakes and betrayal forever, will Konami continue to smother the franchise in pachinko machines and mediocre games? There are currently no confirmed signs of any major philosophy changes on that front as of yet, so, it appears the silence that was once demanded of the original team will continue into the foreseeable future.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Just 10 days ago, we learned about a fan named Qimsar who released a beta version of Konami’s P.T. demo remade in Unreal Engine 4 for the PC. Unfortunately, Konami has recently shut down the remake because of legal reasons, naturally.

Though Qimsar wonders why other P.T. remakes haven’t been removed along with his, there is some good news. On GameJolt, he revealed that on speaking to a Konami representative that, “He told me that my remake was popular (which from the way he spoke, it sounded like it was very popular) around the office and that because of my remake, Konami had a strong resurgence of a desire to make legitimate games again (as opposed to Pachinko machines, mobile games, sports games, which, I guess they’re all ‘legitimate games’ but you get what I’m saying.”

To that effect, not only will he receive some merchandise to show Konami’s appreciation, but also an internship with the publisher. “It hasn’t been made super official or anything, but a freakin’ internship for me with Konami in which I would do stuff with Konami US, EU, and Japan. Internships tend to turn into jobs fairly often and for a 17-year old who isn’t even a senior in high school just yet, to get this for the very first game project that he’s ever worked on with 6 hours of prior UE4 experience (and a fair amount of Unity experience (35 hours give or take but that’s irrelevant), that’s pretty good.”

While it is a shame that Qimsar’s hard work can’t be shared with everyone else, the fact that it’s attracted Konami’s attention enough to offer an internship is certainly a positive. Even if it doesn’t turn into a full-time job, it’s something that Qimsar can add to his resume for work down the line.

P.T., for those out of the loop, was a playable demo for Silent Hills, a reboot of the horror franchise that was meant to be directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro. Following Konami’s falling out with Kojima, the project was shelved and P.T. was removed from the PlayStation Store permanently.

One of the greatest “what if” tragedies in gaming will always be Silent Hills. Announced as a reboot of the classic horror franchise helmed by none other than Hideo Kojima, the game was abruptly cancelled, following the fallout of Kojima’s acrimonious departure from Konami.

We never got to see what a Kojima headed Silent Hill game might look like, but we did get a taste thanks to P.T., a playable teaser (hence the name, yes) for the game that was put up as proof of concept on the PSN Store, before eventually being yanked following the game’s cancellation.

P.T. remains one of the finest realizations of psychological horror in video games to date- but if you never got to play it, you might be in luck. A 17 year old fan named Qimsar has remade the entire thing in Unreal Engine 4 for the PC, and it seems to be a really faithful conversion, down to how pants soilingly terrifying it seems to be.

You can check out a video of it for yourself below, if you want to see what it is like. If you’re interested in giving it a go yourself, you can grab it off of GameJolt.