Few games drive rabid fan speculation and conspiracy theorizing like Silent Hill, and after years of wild guesses, Konami revealed it’s finally ready to announce what’s next for the cult-favourite horror franchise later this week. There’s even a new Silent Hill website, because the old one still points to a Pyramid Head shitpost by series artist Masahiro Ito from earlier this year.
“In your restless dreams, do you see that town?” the new Silent Hill Twitter account posted on Sunday. “The latest updates for the SILENT HILL series, will be revealed during the #SILENTHILL Transmission on Wednesday, October 19th, at 2:00 PM. PDT.”
In your restless dreams, do you see that town?
The latest updates for the SILENT HILL series, will be revealed during the #SILENTHILL Transmission on Wednesday, October 19th, at 2:00 PM. PDThttps://t.co/8Knoq9xYsa
— Silent Hill Official (@SilentHill) October 16, 2022
Announcements of announcements are a dime a dozen in games, but this one is making waves because fans have been waiting nearly a decade for the long-dormant series to return. It’s been so long, in fact, that Konami apparently abandoned the old Silent Hill internet domain back in February. A fan seemingly snatched it up immediately after, and made the entire web page a single screenshot of Ito roasting his iconic Pyramid Head monster design. It was an enemy with a unique place in Silent Hill 2’s story that nevertheless went on to become overused in later games, and eventually the face of the series and a symbol of its excesses.
“I wish I hadn’t designed fxxkin Pyramid Head,” he tweeted on February 20. We’ve all been there.
More recently, new Silent Hill-themed artwork by Ito leaked in May, two years after he teased he was working on a brand new game. That was on top of an existing stack of rumours and reports that there were multiple Silent Hill projects in development, including a possible remake of Silent Hill 2 by Bloober Team, the Polish horror studio behind Layers of Fear and The Medium. Another project, titled Silent Hill: The Short Message, was recently listed by the Korea games rating agency.
Whatever Konami ends up revealing later this week will face a mountain of fan expectations, fear, and frustration. The last time the promise of a new Silent Hill was dangled in front of players’ hopeful faces was when Metal Gear Solid’s Hideo Kojima teamed up with film director Guillermo del Toro for a project called Silent Hills. It was teased with the horror demo P.T., which has since been immortalised by fans who continue to try to play it, despite Konami long ago attempting to nuke all traces of it from orbit.
Desperation for a spiritual successor to that abandoned project came to a head last year when some fans convinced themselves a piece of indie vaporware called Abandoned was in fact an elaborate front for Kojima’s triumphant return to the Silent Hill universe. It was not, and the Death Stranding director has since begun teasing a completely separate game.
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