Silent Hill Transmission Recap Reveals Konami has Big Plans for Series

Summarizing a Sweep of News from the Often Silent Publisher

The decade of silence has been broken and the fog has finally cleared on Silent Hill’s future. Konami emerged out of nowhere this week to reveal a slew of Silent Hill projects in the works via a Silent Hill Transmission. If you missed the presentation or just want a quick rundown we got you covered.

Silent Hill 2 (Remake)

Possibly the most beloved and iconic title in the series, Silent Hill 2 is getting a full-blown remake developed by Bloober Team the developers behind the Layers of Fear and The Medium. The trailer focused on the story, showing off beautiful new cinematics and character models. While not much was shown in terms of gameplay, we know that the game will be adopting the over-the-shoulder camera, similar to the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. Silent Hill veterans Masahiro Ito and Akira Yamaoka reprise their roles as the concept artist and composer respectively. No release date has been given yet, but the game will launch as a 12-month timed exclusive for PS5 and PC players.

Silent Hill: Townfall

Silent Hill: Townfall is a brand new entry in the Silent Hill franchise. The project is being developed by No Code, the team behind Observation and Stories Untold, and published by Annapurna Interactive. The teaser trailer leaves a lot to the imagination, but we do get a brief introduction to a possible supporting character, a few settings, and maybe even a few monsters. Townfall appears to be early in development, but we were told we can expect more updates next year.

Return to Silent Hill

The Silent Hill series is also returning to film in the form of Return to Silent Hill. Producer Victor Hadida of the previous Silent Hill films returns along with the first film’s director Christophe Gans. Strangely enough, the film is referred to as “the catalyst for the revival of new Silent Hill games.” by Hadida. So it appears this project is what made the upcoming games possible and not the other way around. Return to Silent Hill is set to adapt the story of Silent Hill 2 with a new style and vision. Various storyboards and artwork were shown, but the film is still in early production with casting and filming in the works.

Merchandise

With new projects of course comes new merchandise for the hardcore fans out there. Gecco, Crazy Rock, Good Smile, and Bedrock Collectables are all releasing various statues and figures based on the Silent Hill 2 cast. The Official Konami Shop also introduces a slew of new Silent Hill products including a skateboard collection, Mira plush, Silent Hill sign, and much more.

Silent Hill: Ascension

A drastically different take on Silent Hill is in production from Genvid, Bad Robot Games, bEHaviour, and DJ2 Entertainment. Silent Hill Ascension is a community-focused live interactive story. Players will make choices to alter the events of an unfolding nightmare where there's no turning back. The short teaser also showcases a new monster likely to play an integral role in the plot. Ascension appears to be reaching for a different and possibly broader audience of players outside of existing Silent Hill fans. The title is set to go live in 2023.

Silent Hill f

The Silent Hill Transmission concluded with yet another brand-new entry in the series. Silent Hill f shifts the setting to 1960s Japan, bringing a whole new feel to familiar horror. The story is being written by horror visual novelist Ryukishi07, characters/creatures are being designed by Kera, Motoi Okamoto was noted as the producer, and development will be helmed by Neobards Entertainment. The teaser, while short, distinguished itself among the rest of the projects that preceded it with its new atmosphere and art direction. Once again, no release window was provided for this title.

Conclusion

After a long drought of Silent Hill content, it’s crazy to see the abundance of projects currently in production. Konami’s new strategy seems to involve outsourcing the IP rather than developing the projects in-house. With how iconic and beloved Silent Hill is, there’s surely no shortage of studios that’d love to be involved with a Silent Hill project. Most of the projects we saw today were pretty early in development and there was a pretty noticeable lack of gameplay and release dates, but after over a decade, I bet Silent Hill fans are willing to wait just a bit longer for these projects to take shape.