Silent Hill’s resurrection is one of the happier stories to emerge from the games industry in recent years. After spending roughly a decade locked in a Konami cupboard, Silent Hill has received three new entries published by Konami in as many years, all of which arrived to positive reviews and, seemingly, healthy sales. But if Silent Hill 2 Remake, Silent Hill f, and Silent Hill: Townfall still haven’t satisfied your craving for allegorical horror in foggy towns, fret not, because Konami has plenty more plans for the series’ ongoing revival.
In an interview featured in Famitsu (via IGN), Silent Hill producer Motoi Okamoto explained that Konami is “relieved” by both the critical and commercial reception to the aforementioned three games. “All three titles we initially announced were able to be released successfully,” Okamoto said, adding that, “they’ve also received high praise, and we are satisfied with it.”
Okamoto went on to say that the games released so far only represent the “first wave” of Konami’s planned games for the series, and that there’s not one but two additional waves on the drawing board. “Successfully launching this ‘first wave’ comes with great relief, but we’re not stopping here; we must think of the second and third waves,” Okamoto stated. “We can’t share specific details, but we’re currently looking at a number of projects.”
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It’s a very different situation from where Silent Hill was only a few years ago. During the chat, Okamoto revealed that persuading Konami’s executive to pursue new entries in the series has been challenging, especially after the cancellation of Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills in 2015.
While Okamoto eventually got Silent Hill 2’s remake greenlit, he was convinced that “just one remake is not enough”. According to the producer, his reasoning was “if there were only one release, wouldn’t people think that the development is going to be cancelled again?”
While Konami is keeping details of its future Silent Hill projects under wraps, we do know about one of them already. After its excellent remake of Silent Hill 2, Bloober Team is turning its attention to the 1999 original. Remaking the original will represent an interesting challenge, considering how much simpler its narrative is compared to its legendary sequel, and I’m curious to see how Bloober Team will approach it.
As for whether NeoBards Entertainment and Screen Burn Interactive will return to the series after their takes on Silent Hill, this is yet to be confirmed. But according to our resident Silent Hill expert Elie Gould, both developers certainly have what it takes. In their Silent Hill f review, Elie described the Japan-set action-horror as a “true return to form”. As for exploring the Scottish town of St Amelia, Elie wrote that Screen Burn “absolutely understands what makes a great Silent Hill game” in their Silent Hill Townfall review.
