Update: Konami Confirm Reedus Contract Has Expired, But “Will Continue To Develop Silent Hill Series”

Update:  Well this situation just got a little more confusing, following a statement from Konami issued to Kotaku.  In it they confirm that Silent Hills as we know it won’t happen, nor will it feature the likeness of Norman Reedus.  However, they do give the indication that perhaps discussions are underway with Kojima and Del Toro on “future Silent Hill projects“, and they finish off by saying “stay tuned for further announcements.“

In a nutshell, what I get from that is that Silent Hills is dead, but instead they will focus on a Silent Hill (a new project) which will no longer involve Norman Reedus (which is a shame).  So it’s not really all bad news, especially if Del Toro and Kojima can come to some arrangement (if they are talking to Konami, which is what I got from the statement by Konami).  You can read the statement below.

For me, as awesome as P.T is, it’s not a full representation of the finished and final product of Silent Hills.  In fact in the description on Konami.jp, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page where there is a link to download P.T it reads “This game is based on the new concept “Playable Teaser” (P.T). Controls, settings and other elements will differ in the final game.”  So it’s there in writing, that even if Silent Hills did happen, there’s a chance that it wouldn’t be a representation of P.T anyway.

• Editor note: P.T is being removed from PSN on 29/05/15, so the link may no longer be present following that date.

And if you think about it, other than the trailer featuring Norman Reedus at the end of P.T, we’ve actually seen no gameplay footage of Silent Hills.  It could be worse, we could have no new Silent Hill game altogether, but at least Konami has stated that they are “committed to new Silent Hill titles”, so we will get a Silent Hill, just perhaps not what we was originally expecting.  As always, we’ll be here to keep you updated as and when Konami make “further announcements” on Silent Hill.  Could it also be that maybe the folks in charge wasn’t happy with what they had developed and wanted to wipe the slate clean?  What’s really happened or happening is anyone’s guess, but with me being the ever Silent Hill optimist, I’ll still happy that Silent Hill is still going to happen.

Original Story: Over the weekend, it’s all gone a bit madder than usual in the crazy world of Silent Hills.  First up we heard the news that the P.T demo is to be removed from PSN this coming Wednesday.  Then Guillermo del Toro said that Silent Hills “is not going to happen”, then Norman Reedus revealed his disappointment on the news via his Twitter account.  This caused various websites and fans concern with words that it’s been “confirmed” that Silent Hills has been cancelled.  Yet there is not been one official confirmation from Konami, this is what’s kept my belief alive that the game will still happen, with or without the Kojima/del Toro/Reedus trio.

However, IGN stated that del Toro was speaking about this collaboration with Kojima when saying that Silent Hills “is not going to happen.”  So it seems that his words were taken out of context.

But now according to Eurogamer, they have confirmed that Norman Reedus’s contract has expired with Konami, so it’s likely that he may not be featuring in the new Silent Hill instalment after all.  Unless he’s done all his motion-cap work before the Kojima saga and his job is now done (unlikely, but is a slight a possibility).  A Q&A was sent to Eurogamer in which Konami also confirmed that they “will continue to develop the Silent Hill series”.  You can see the Q&A below:

So I strongly suspect that Silent Hill will happen either in 2016 or beyond, but it’s incredibly unlikely that it will feature the work of Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro or Norma Reedus (it may even take a slight different direction).  But surely that is better than nothing ,right?  Well as long as they can capture the tension, horror and suspense found in P.T, with me being the ever Silent Hill optimist, despite this whole saga, I still have faith that we will get a quality Silent Hill title in this new era.

So now that we can have some comfort today with our beloved franchise, go and download (or re-download) P.T from the PSN Store before it’s gone, if you haven’t already.  You can read my opinion article on why I believe Silent Hills will still happen HERE (which was wrote before the Toro/Reedus tweets might I add).