The horror of lawyers.
Four images from an apparent reboot of Konami's beloved Silent Hill series have been leaked onto the internet—and were almost immediately nuked by a copyright strike, more-or-less confirming their authenticity. In addition, a former Silent Hill developer bemoaned the lack of professionalism at studios that have "multiple people" providing materials to a known leaker.
The latter point is not direct confirmation of course, but Konami's lawyers have certainly played a blinder. So... way to throw people off the scent. The four images, which can be seen here, show an extremely messy living room, stuffed with paraphernalia, rubbish and (of course) a cot. The wallpaper's peeling, the windows are wonky, and in short it looks very much like a Silent Hill location. Another shot shows a close-up of what looks like an equally dilapidated kitchen.
The other screens show a red-tinged corridor covered with post-it notes, saying nice things like 'pervert and 'fat bitch', with a figure looming at the end of the corridor whose head appears formed from the post-its. Then there's a woman's face where parts of her skin are missing, with similar scrawled messages visible underneath saying yet more loveliness such as 'minger' and 'I hate myself.'
If a studio has multiple people sending materials to a known leaker, they are not professional enough to do the game justice.May 13, 2022
Finally there's a piece of concept art that the red corridor screenshot is clearly based on. This image is dated in the bottom-right as being from October 20, 2020, and is signed by Masahiro Ito—the art director on previous Silent Hills.
Pretty on-the-nose stuff, and the use of British slang like 'minger' suggests that the rumours of a UK setting are true (leading to some twitter wags declaring this to be Silent Hull). The concept art also has a door with "He's not a messiah, he's a very mean [indecipherable]—Team Robbie" scrawled on it, which is of course a Life of Brian reference and adds further credence to the UK angle.
The leaker, AestheticGamer wrote when sharing the images (thanks, VGC): "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’, and this is not the only Silent Hill game in development.
"The shots are a bit dated, from 2020, so maybe this project looks a bit different now. But [this is] what I’m choosing to share. I know many will doubt this, but I have a lot of private proof to show this is real, and as always I continue to wait on the Silent Hill game reveal."
Shortly after which, the images were removed “in response to a report from the copyright holder” and AestheticGamer's Twitter account was temporarily locked.
A new Silent Hill has been rumoured for years, with Bloober Team said to be on development duties, but this is the most solid evidence yet that something is indeed out there. Wonderful as it was, P.T. now seems like an unbearably cruel tease of the fanbase, the ultimate what-might-have-been. It looks like, soon enough, we'll find out what really is next for one of the great horror series.
