In case anyone wants to be even more pissed off at Konami, Guillermo del Toro tweeted that JUNJI FREAKIN ITO was collaborating with Kojima and himself on Silent Hills:

If you haven't checked out his work, you really owe it to yourself. Unsettling as all hell, and would have been perfect for Silent Hill. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu....

I've read Uzumaki.

Fuck Konami

They should just make a game anyway already.

(I know, easier said than done...)

MOTHERFUCKER.

Uzumaki was so good.

I wish we could live in a world where compelling new stuff for old franchises wasn't continually smashed by corporate shitlords.

Kojima, del Toro, Ito. A match made in heaven (or hell, considering the subject matter)

Of course Konami had to ruin it.

This is just cruel.

To me this is just starting to sound like it would have turned into a big disjointed mess of ideas and if PT was even the smallest indication of the kind of game they were going for that wouldn't inspire much confidence either.

So I guess I remain totally indifferent about the death of Silent Hills, other than the part where every few months or so somebody pokes at the corpse enough to make Twitter get really upset.

I didn't need to know this. Goddamnit.

Oh my god. This really could've been the greatest horror game ever, and probably one of the best games ever made.... Finally a game that could've topped Silent Hill 2. Been reading lots of Junji Ito' stuff, the man really is a master of horror. Can't stop reading some of these short stories.. so good!

FUCK.

Thank you for twisting the knife you motherfucker...

This whole Silent Hill project was some crazy fan dream from heaven that was ripped from us.

Jesus. That could have been the best game ever made.

"And here is some concept art where you can clearly see your childhood dog brought back to life, which would have been a feature in Silent Hills..."

Of course. Why not? I look forward to news that David Lynch, the late Wes Craven, a young Tobe Hooper, Tim Burton in his prime, and a real-world manifestation of Pyramid Head himself were also working on this game. Maybe some news that the game was actually ready to be released, but Konami destroyed all existing code.

Oh well. I'm sure Silent Hill Pachinko: Sexy Horror Adventure will more than make up for a mere dream horror project with three of my favorite modern creative minds involved.

...I... I don't know what to say, really. A Junji Ito horror game is all i want.

It never would've seen the light of day.

I'm not going to pretend to have any idea who Junji Ito is, but by looking at his artwork posted in this thread he seems like a natural fit for the project.

Konami can really go to hell at this point.

You could say this project really spiraled down the drain....

Th—this game was made for those three...!

Edit: Now that I think about it, holes are a recurring theme in Silent Hill too...

Junji Ito is a fucking brilliant horror manga artist. At least Uzumaki and to a lesser extent Gyo. Though, I think my favorite story of his is the short story at the back of Gyo's second volume called "The Enigma of Amigara Fault". The idea of being betrayed and horribly and irrevocably changed by a place you thought you ultimately belonged is a terrifying idea.

Everyone love's a scapegoat. Konami isn't the bad guy here.

The truth is, the Silent Hill games haven't been selling or reviewing well enough to warrant the amount of money needed to create a new game.

Think about that the next time you buy a Madden, FIFA or Call of Duty game.

@kylebsure: I don't disagree with you, but at the same time I feel like everything was coming together (creatively at least) to make Silent Hills something truly special. The anger at Konami is so venomous because this was the best shot the Silent Hill franchise has had of a true return to form, especially coming off the goodwill and excitement generated by PT.

@sinusoidal: I bought Gyo almost solely for Amigara Fault. Deeply disturbing and fascinating. Part of me hopes that the del Toro / Kojima / Ito triad continue to work together in some way shape or form.

:(

@kylebsure said:

Oh, come now. If the Silent Hill franchise had not been selling or reviewing well enough to warrant a new game, Konami would have never released the Playable Teaser for one, announcing Guillermo Del Toro, Hideo Kojima, and Norman Reedus' involvement.

You forgot to point out they got Akira Yamaoka to do the music and were looking into hiring John Carpenter as a second scenario writer. Just imagine a Silent Hill game in the vein of The Thing, and you get the idea.

The best tweet about this was:

Oh wow...that would have made me not even play the game myself because I would have seriously been too chickened out knowing that Junji Fucking Ito was a collaborator. I'd probably have some fucked up night terrors.

Oh what could have been! It really was a dream team collaboration making that game and such a shame that it'll never see the light of day.

I look forward to the "Jodorowsky's Dune"-esque documentary about this game.

Again, are Konami really at fault for canning a project spearheaded by three people that are unlikely to get into a room long enough to finish the thing?

@hassun: man, that manga freaked me out.

Konami, aka "THE MAN", didn't want this art to get out there. Konami wants to keep us repressed, starving, so that we will consume any low-rent, addictive meal that they please to feed us! Fuck you I won't do what you tell me!

Honestly, this entire project seems expensive as hell and it just keeps getting more expensive with news like this. Its in that weird territory of being way too niche to cast a large enough net to even break even with the amount of money that would have been poured into this game.

Let's get real, if Konami lost their shit with an expensive project with "Kojima + TV Actor", imagine how toxic the idea of a project with "Kojima + TV Actor + Hollywood Director + Respected Horror Manga Man + Working on a Franchise That Has Been Shit for a Long Time" would be to them. So aside from the other obvious evils Konami may be up to, canceling this project most certainly is not one of them. Its a smart move for an unstable market.

@fr0br0: By that logic, why undertake the project at all? It's not like Konami has never worked with Kojima before - surely he's somewhat of a known quantity after how many years? Konami set the wheels in motion, released PT into the world with a teaser for the thing, let Kojima and del Toro speak publicly about it, then canned it. Right or wrong financially, they absolutely made their own bed here.

@fram: I think it is pretty telling that somebody high up on the chain at Konami looked at some numbers being spent on video games and looked at how much they were making on other known quantities and said "fuck that video game shit" after all of this was set in motion. Just because Konami has done bonehead moves before and it has worked out for them (Metal Gear Solid and Kojima are both things that should not exist with the amount of money thrown behind them because on paper, that anime/military shit wouldn't sell nearly the amount it needs to to make its huge budget back) doesn't mean that is a good model for them to live by.

By this logic, we can say Disney is the worst company for canceling Tron 3, but in actuality its smart as hell for Disney to capitalize on Star Wars and scrap Tron and put all focus on the money maker. It sucks for people looking forward to Tron or in this case Silent Hills, but people looking forward to those projects obviously aren't in the largest market. Companies can misjudge excitement for a property, doesn't mean they have to go forward with it all the way. They can cancel it all they'd like and save themselves from a larger money blow. It is their property.

@fr0br0: you act like them stifling creativity for numbers is a good thing.

I don't think he's that good at horror. So this isn't that big of a deal to me. (Edit: I should clarify this bad wording to mean I just don't find his artwork interesting, and doubly don't think it feels very much like it would fit Silent Hill- just my opinion though)

The game not being made at all is the saddest part, but Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, and 4 still exist so... there's always that which is fine.

I wish they'd at least release the old ones on GOG or something. It's not hard to get those games working still.

@fr0br0: Tron is a victim of Disney's slate being too stacked - the last film made money, just nowhere near the amount that the Marvel properties have generated, or that Star Wars undoubtedly will. Comparing Konami to Disney doesn't entirely hold up in my opinion. The "moneymaker" in Disney's case is still big-budget tentpole blockbusters - using established franchises to minimise risk. The films Disney produces are largely held in high regard by the general public and also have fervent fanbases, and they are working with filmmakers who are maintaining quality and have a healthy respect for the source material.

Konami is doing nothing of the sort. It is sharp-turning out of a business environment that is no longer profitable, and relegating the likes of Silent Hill and Castlevania to window dressing for pachinko machines. Nobody is a "fan" of pachinko machines, nor is there any art or cultural worth to what they have to offer.

Konami would be wise to at least license out their franchises to smaller developers that care for their legacies, and might perhaps make something great from them. I'd love to see what Frictional might do with Silent Hill, or see if Derek Yu could redefine Castlevania as a modern roguelike.

I don't think that we will ever see a horror team as good as team silent. I'm not demeaning the big names who were working on this project but i'm just saying that team silent have proved to us how good they are as a horror team 4 times on a row!

If i had a wish then it would be a kickstarter for a team silent project :_(

@kylebsure: Actually, Konami is the bad guy here. It started by announcing Silent Hill 2&3 on the same event. Then forcing team silent to make 4 their way. Then, kicking team silent which have been followed by the same type of mistakes....

1) late release

2) wrong consoles

3) suits control (according to devs)

4) low budget

..... And this.

@fram: I believe comparing Disney to Konami is completely viable. If consumers did not enjoy the pachinko machines then the consumers would not use them and use somebody else's machines that they enjoy and thus Konami could not comfortably rely on those machines for money. Konami is using established franchises to minimize risk on their machines and who is to say that the Japanese market isn't totally eating those machines up, so just like Disney taking comic books and making them into movies. To think that Disney woulnd't jump out of a business that is no longer profitable is foolish. Disney said "fuck Lucas Art games" not too long ago and stuck with the thing that makes the most money for them, Star Wars shit.

Konami would be smart not to sell their franchises in case the market takes a turn for good. They don't care if some people want more games right now, there isn't enough money in it to put it at the scale and quality people want. And why would Konami be wise to license out their franchises? If you actually care about creativity you would play something despite the name it has. Don't say "Well X company should just do Y with the Z property." If game development were that easy, then Konami would have stayed in it.

@ripelivejam: I don't believe putting down any sort of creative work is a good thing. But I'm finding it intriguing that people are taking this Silent Hills being canned process personal. Corporations aren't people ya'll. They don't strive to be creative. They strive to make money or else they will go under. Konami is lucky to have other sources of income so they don't have to bank on risks in the game industry. If they didn't have the other income source then they may have needed a Silent Hills to push them along, but in this case they don't.

And I said it before, but I think Konami is a shit company, but for other reasons than canceling one project.

Don't worry guys. Konami executives are still totally committed to making AAA games.

Who said anything about the objective good? It's about what's best for business. Even if a product arrived, how long would it take and would they make back their costs on a franchise that's gone fairly cold. And is making back their costs enough?