Recently, there were rumors going around the internet that a new entry to the Silent Hill franchise was in the works. Various industry insiders mentioned that Konami was looking for partners to help bring the iconic horror games back to life. However, a recent report by horror news outlet RelyOnHorror has debunked the rumors.
"We’re aware of all the rumors and reports but can confirm that they are not true. I know it’s not the answer your fans may want to hear," a North American PR representative for Konami told RelyOnHorror. "It’s not to say we are completely closing the door on the franchise, just not in the way it is being reported."
The horror game franchise launched in 1999 with the original Silent Hill, known for its creepy aesthetic that embraced the technological draw distance limits on the Playstation 1 by creating dense fog around the player. The last official main line entry to the series was 2012's lukewarm reviewed Silent Hill: Downpour, which sits in the mid-60s on Metacritic.
In 2014, fans of the franchise received their last solid hope of a new entry with Hideo Kojima's PT, a demo for a planned Silent Hill game that was rumored to have been directed by Guillermo del Toro alongside Kojima. The plug was pulled on the project, and PT was removed from the PSN Store. Subsquently, Kojima left Konami, and went on to make the game Death Stranding.
In the years since the last major console entries in the Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, and Castlevania franchises, Konami had developed mobile game versions of their properties. The company has also been producing pachinko machines, which have been profitable for the company. However, in 2018 Japan began to crack down on pachinko machines and other forms of gambling. While this may slow their advance in the pachinko market, the mobile games division investment shows no signs of slowing, as games like Pro Evolution Soccer Mobile 2020 and the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise have done incredibly well for the company's profit margin.
With the pivot away from console games to mobile, it may be some time before fans see another major entry to the Silent Hill franchise, if we ever see one at all.
