The Sony And Silent Hill Rumor Unpacked
Another week brings more rumors about the state of the Silent Hill franchise. This time, we have a new rumor from noted Silent Hill leaker DuskGolem, a.k.a. AestheticGamer, as well as a curious social media post from manga artist Suehiro Maruo.
Starting with Dusk Golem: they recently posted on the Resent Era forums that Konami and Sony have entered into a partnership to develop the next Silent Hill game. According to Dusk Golem, a deal was reached in 2019 wherein Sony would make a new Silent Hill game with Konami pitching in for development expenses and sharing in profits.
You may be asking yourself, "Hang on, since when does Sony agree to make a game for a developer?" And you'd be right for asking that very question. It's really not the way things are normally done. Usually, a company like Sony gives a third party the funding to make a game, instead of the other way around.
At least Dusk Golem does concede this point. In fact, Dusk Golem starts things off by admitting that the entire project appears to be "a bit of a unique one." They continue by offering an explanation for why the game would possibly be developed in such an unorthodox manner. Here's how it all allegedly went down: Silent Hill and Gravity Rush creator Keiichiro Toyama approached Sony about making a new horror video game. However, Sony was concerned about putting too much money into a new horror project, particularly due to the underperformance of previous games like Siren.
Dusk Golem admits that they're not entirely sure how the talks began between Konami and Sony, but they're fairly certain of how things proceeded. Konami and Sony agreed to fund the game together, while Sony would handle marketing and publishing costs. It's seemingly a win-win for both companies, with Sony saving money on the budget for a high profile horror IP and Konami finally getting a new Silent Hill game made after all this time.
According to Dusk Golem, this particular project has been in development for nearly a year and a half. This would kind of line up with Dusk Golem/AestheticGamer's previous claims that Konami has been fielding pitches for new Silent Hill projects for quite some time.
However, it would also seem to fly right in the face of Konami's previous statements shooting down the many rumors surrounding the Silent Hill franchise. Just last month, Konami Us told Rely On Horror, "We're aware of all the rumors and reports but can confirm that they are not true. I know it's not the answer your fans may want to hear."
Still, there was a general feeling that this was Konami US's response specifically to the rumors that Kojima Productions was working on the new Silent Hill game. That doesn't entirely discount the rumors reported by AestheticGamer/Dusk Golem. It's also worth noting that Dusk Golem has reported correct information regarding the Resident Evil franchise in the past, so they clearly have some sources worth listening to.
After all, we've also seen hints from Silent Hill 2 and 3 artist Masahiro Ito that he was working on something Silent Hill-related. At the very least, he mentioned working on a project that he hoped wasn't cancelled, seemingly referring to the abandoned Silent Hills project from Hideo Kojima.
Speaking of artists, the other tantalizing tidbit in favor of a new Silent Hill game existing comes from the Tumblr account of manga artist Suehiro Maruo. He posted an image of a sign bearing the words Silent Hills. He also shared the image in his Instagram story (via Push Square) that shows the sign outside of Konami's offices. This definitely seems to hint that there's some kind of forward momentum on a new Silent Hill game, doesn't it?
So basically, we have a bunch of hints from concept artists and a leak from Dusk Golem that certainly sounds plausible. The problem with this is that we still have yet to hear any official word from Sony or Konami. Keep in mind, we only have been told that the previous rumors are false. This, like pretty much everything related to the Silent Hill franchise these days, is going to require our patience while we wait for an official announcement.
In the meantime, it's certainly an exciting prospect. Who better to revive the franchise than the the man who started it? Hopefully we will hear something official in the very near future. It's starting to feel like the Silent Hill fandom is trapped in video game purgatory.