Are we finally getting the true successor to PT that we were denied all those years ago? Well…
The burn of Silent Hills’ cancellation still stings four years later. The return of the classic horror franchise was to be helmed by Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear, together with Guillermo del Toro, award-winning horror film director, and Junji Ito, legendary horror manga artist. Sadly, such a perfect union was too good to be true, and after the terrifying playable teaser PT, the game was cancelled and Kojima left his publisher Konami behind.
And while Kojima has since definitely landed on his feet, forming his own studio at Kojima Productions and delivering Death Stranding to high acclaim, rumors still persist that the horror dream team would get back together to work on a horror game. From subtle comments by Kojima, to fans piecing together vague hints in tweets and images, the hope that we’d get a dedicated Kojima horror game was too good to let go.
These rumors reached a possible climax last week when news broke that Kojima and Junji Ito were again working together on a new horror game. In an interview at Comic-Con@Home 2020, Ito commented on the matter through a translator:
“I do know director Kojima and we have been in conversation that he may have a horror-based game that he may be doing, and so he has invited me to work on that, but there are no details on it yet,”
So that’s it, right? We won? I mean sure that was the most noncommittal answer possible and there were like 13 “maybe”s in there, but it’s basically confirmed at this point and we just need to know where we can pre-order now?
Well, not exactly. Despite numerous gaming news publications picking this story up and hyping up fans into a frenzy again, the champagne may have been popped too early.
Ito has since tweeted an explanation of his answer and an apology. While the original tweet was in Japanese, user @eigogamejikkyo has thankfully provided a better translation than Google:
“In a past interview, I said casually that I received an offer from Mr. Kojima, but in reality, it was a remark made at a party where he said, “If there is an opportunity, I may ask for your help”. I apologize to Mr. Kojima and all of the fans to whom I may have given false hope.
So, we’re back to square one. This is in fact, hard confirmation that no, Kojima and Ito are not working on a horror game right now.
But while this news turned out to be nothing substantial, the dream isn’t entirely dead. At the very least, Kojima and Ito know we want to see them work on a horror game together. And this is further proof that Kojima is still thinking about it, since he approached Ito about the idea. Even if the offer of partnership was only for the possibility of a future game, we may still see this duo team up for a horror game again one day. But not today.
In my restless dreams, I see that game. Silent Hills. Or you know, whatever they end up calling it.
