Konami and Bloober Partnership
Is this the return that fans have been waiting for? Rumors are running rampant about the possible return of the beloved horror franchise, Silent Hill. In a statement by Konami made June 30, 2021, they announced they are forming a "business alliance" with Polish game studio Bloober Team. So, what does this mean moving forward?
The last time we heard from the Silent Hill franchise, outside of the occasional pachinko machine, was 2012's Silent Hills demo called PT developed by Hideo Kojima, written by Guillermo Del Toro, and starring Norman Reedus. PT ended up being canceled following a falling out between Kojima and Konami, and we haven't heard from the series since.
Bloober Team is a polish game studio best known for horror titles such as Layers of Fear, Blair Witch, and most recently The Medium. According to Bloober Team's investor relations website, the partnership will "include jointly developing selected contents and exchanging know-how." Now, what does this mean for Silent Hill? Well, we're not sure yet. Nothing has been confirmed so obviously we need to take all of this speculation with a grain of salt.
With Bloober Team's track record of releasing atmospheric, psychological horror games, this seems to further support the possibility of a new Silent Hill game, and the series is long overdue for a reboot. The range of games that Bloober Team has released has been a mixture of first-person exploration to more third-person adventure with creepy set pieces, opens the door to a variety of different routes a new game could go. With the success and love for PT and its first-person perspective, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the route they choose to take. Now, again, nothing has been confirmed yet.
The last time we saw a full, mainline entry in the Silent Hill franchise was 2012's Silent Hill: Book of Memories for the long since abandoned PlayStation Vita. This was even a departure for the series being essentially a top-down dungeon crawler where you try and survive waves of monsters from the series. Fans have been longing for a new game for years, me being one of them.
As I said, all of this is still rumor and speculation at the moment, but I will be following this story very closely and will keep you updated as soon as more is released. Fingers crossed!
