Silent Hills reportedly cancelled by Konami

During the San Francisco Film Festival director Guillermo Del Toro announced that development on Silent Hills has "officially" halted. Soon after Del Toro's announcement, actor Norman Reedus, who was the actor and voice of the game's protagonist, also confirmed the cancellation.

Whether or not this is true is a tangled mess, with more sources pointing towards cancelled than not.

Let's say it is true and ask why was Silent Hills would get cancelled. Konami and game creator/director Hideo Kojima had a recent falling out that led to his name being removed from certain Metal Gear games. We should note that Konami has stated that they will continue to develop Metal Gear games without Kojima (their creator).

Silent Hills was relatively early in production with Konami, Del Toro and Kojima, so cancelling it wouldn't be too hard. Del Toro's statement could be brought into question though, according to an unnamed source at IGN, Del Toro was only speaking about the working relationship with Kojima.

On the flip-side, Polygon's anonymous source says the game is "effectively cancelled." According to a Q&A from Konami, the developer will continue developing for the Silent Hill series, but does not mention Silent Hills — similar to what they are doing with the Metal Gear series.

What we are left with is this statement from Del Toro (note the audible "aww" of disappointment from the crowd), reported by a San Francisco Film Festival attendee:

As well as this Q&A:

Why has the image of Norman Reedus disappeared from the official website?
This is because our contract period with him has expired.

Why is P.T. no longer available on Playstation Network?
Because the distribution period has expired.

What will happen with regard to Silent Hill?
Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. will continue to develop the SILENT HILL series.

What will happen with regard to P.T.?
P.T. was purely created to be a playable teaser for Silent Hill.

What do you mean by “playable teaser”?
The playable teaser was a trial edition of Silent Hill intended to give players an idea of the game concept.

If the game is truly cancelled, it would be extremely unfortunate. If you search the hashtag #SilentHills on Twitter you can get an idea of how many people were excited for the game (I know I was). It would be a huge let down – this was the game that was supposed to put Silent Hill back on the map.

Catch me on Twitter @TatiMo_GZ