Silent Hill series to return as Konami hosts reveal event

After many rumors and leaks, and over a decade without a major new game, Konami will reveal the future of the Silent Hill series on Wednesday this week, at 5 p.m. EDT.

“In your restless dreams, do you see that town?” the company tweeted from the official Silent Hill account. “The latest updates for the SILENT HILL series, will be revealed during the #SILENTHILL Transmission on Wednesday, October 19th, at 2:00 PM. PDT.”

The tweet links to a new Silent Hill website, which has no further information.

Masahiro Ito, who worked as monster designer and art director on the first three Silent Hill games, retweeted the announcement. Ito confirmed in 2020 that he was working as “a core member” of a development team on a new game. A piece of artwork signed by Ito appeared in a series of images that leaked earlier this year, purporting to be from a new Silent Hill game.

These images are said to relate to a P.T.-style playable teaser for a new, mainline Silent Hill. South Korea’s game ratings body recently rated a game called Silent Hill: The Short Message.

Also in the works, reportedly, is a remake of Silent Hill 2 made by Polish horror specialist Bloober Team (Layers of Fear), which announced a partnership with Konami last year. A third rumored project involves an episodic, story-focused series. Also, Christophe Gans, who directed the 2006 film Silent Hill, has said he’s working on the script for a third Silent Hill movie.

Any and all of this might be revealed on Wednesday; it’s even possible we’ll see the release of the reported playable teaser.

Despite being hugely popular with horror fans, the Silent Hill series has been more or less dormant since 2012, which saw the release of Silent Hill: Downpour and handheld spinoff Silent Hill: Book of Memories. Neither title was well received. The series was due for a high-profile relaunch in a game called Silent Hills, produced as a collaboration between Hideo Kojima and the film director Guillermo del Toro, and promoted by the release of P.T. But the game was cancelled in 2015 amid Kojima’s acrimonious departure from Konami and the publisher’s partial retreat from major game development.

The return of Silent Hill is a big moment for fans of the series, and it’s also a big test for Konami, which hasn’t released a major video game since 2018’s Metal Gear Survive — unless you count the disastrous launch of its rebranded soccer franchise, eFootball. All eyes will be on Wednesday’s announcement to see if it can rebuild players’ trust.