Fans of the classic horror series have been vying for a new entry in the Silent Hill series for years at this point. Rumours of a new title in the franchise have been swirling ever since Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills game was cancelled back in 2015. Well, a few recently leaked images could provide our first look at the latest Silent Hill game.
The images look as though they could possibly be screengrabs from a trailer. Could this possibly be something we could see at next month’s Summer Game Fest? They are reminiscent of both the classic Silent Hill aesthetic, as well as the most recent entire in the Resident Evil franchise, which took heavy inspiration from P.T.
The Tweet in question before being hit by a DMCA.
For those out of the loop, P.T was a playable teaser released in 2014 by Konami to tease the upcoming Silent Hills game from Hideo Kojima, starring Norman Reedus. Guillermo Del Toro was also involved and the game promised an utterly terrifying horror experience like no other.
The project was sadly cancelled the following year, due to the fallout which Kojima had with Konami. Mr Kojima has since went on to create Death Stranding, also starring Norman Reedus. Death Stranding was developed under Kojima’s new studio; Kojima Productions.
With that said, some rumours still persist that Hideo Kojima could be working on some form of a Silent Hill title. Some claim that Hasan Kahraman of Blue Box Game Studios is a pseudonym for Hideo Kojima. It is speculated that this is a marketing ploy, similar to how Kojima originally teased Metal Gear Solid V, before it was revealed to be an MGS game, under the name Joakim Mogren.
Kahraman and his team are working on a first-person horror game called Abandoned and have been teasing the game for months via their Twitter account. The teases have included references and imagery, which do call to mind Silent Hill. However, the most likely scenario is that Blue Box have simply taken inspiration from the hugely influential Silent Hill franchise.
Therefore, it is doubtful that this most recent leak has anything to do with Hideo Kojima or Hasan Kahraman. Instead, these are most likely leaked screenshots from the Silent Hill game which Bloober Team have been allegedly working on for a while now.
Back in June of 2021, Bloober Team officially announced a partnership with Konami. Around the same time, a rumour was circling stating that there were in fact two separate Silent Hill games in development from two different developers. This also poured fuel on the theory that Abandoned was a secret Silent Hill game.
Regardless of whether Bloober Team is developing a Silent Hill game, this should be an interesting partnership.
It seems fairly safe to assume that Bloober will likely be working on a horror title for Konami, given that the studio has worked on titles such as; The Medium, Layers of Fear and Blair Witch. Therefore, the idea of them developing a Silent Hill game makes sense.
Additionally, a fair amount of time has passed since the partnership was officially announced. This means that if Bloober are indeed working on a Silent Hill game for Konami, the timescale for these images leaking would line up.
(1/2) Silent Hill leak. There's a lot I'm not sharing for now. This is from a relatively new source for me, but I have been given more than enough proof to believe them. I also will mention the names "Anita & Maya", "SMS Messages", & this is not the only SH game in dev. The shots pic.twitter.com/t5MWzNxfFS
— AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem (@AestheticGamer1) May 13, 2022
Though, Dusk Golem, – the leaker responsible for sharing these images, – does note that they were captured back in 2020. This means that the game could look completely different at this point. Dusk Golem also reiterated the rumour that there is more than one Silent Hill game currently in development.
Another interesting aspect of the Tweet was the claim that the game will include “SMS messages”. This idea is something which Alanah Pearce previously stated would have been an element of Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills.
I heard that Silent Hills would require you to sign a waiver before playing because it would somehow interact with your real-world self, like by sending you emails or text messages as characters from the game even when you weren’t actively playing. https://t.co/aWezrmYA7v
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) November 19, 2019
Dusk Golem’s Tweet also stated they are in possession of even more info although, they will not be revealing it for the time being. Interestingly, the Tweet later got hit by a DMCA claim from Konami, adding even more credibility to the legitimacy of the leaked images.
As a company, Konami has leant away from AAA game development in recent years, therefore it is hard to tell what their plans are for the future in that regard. The Japanese publisher has also been accused of mishandling its beloved IP, so it could make sense that they instead plan to lend that IP out to talented external developers.
Do you think that the leaked images are from an upcoming Silent Hill game? Does the idea of a new Silent Hill game from Bloober Team excite you? Let us know in the comments section below or you can Tweet me at the link in my bio below.
John
Can’t wait for this!