The Silent Hill series is back with a vengeance as Konami’s iconic horror franchise keeps releasing hit after hit. With the series now hitting a new sales milestone after the release of the phenomenal Silent Hill F, it’s clear that Konami’s once-abandoned series is back to stay.
While players are now happily playing new games in the series, Konami has a conveyer belt of new releases in the works, including a remake of the original game by Bloober Team and the upcoming Townfall spin-off by Screen Burn and Annapurna Interactive. But why is the company announcing so many titles at once?
Speaking on social media, Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto explained that Konami had to prove to fans that it was “serious” about not only bringing back the series, but doing it right. After a horrendous decade for the fandom, the company had to pitch not just one new entry, but “the future of the series” to an abandoned fanbase.
Okamoto explained that the first step for this was announcing the remake of the second game, F, and Townfall all at the same time, saying: “We didn’t ant to just announce a single remake to ‘test the waters’”.
“We wanted people to feel how serious we were about reviving the series. Developing a remake and a new title simultaneously naturally involves risks, but we wanted to convey our commitment first and foremost,” they continued. “Only when a new game is announced can the future of a series be seen. Users won’t feel motivated to engage with an IP unless they can sense it has a future. If the company takes a wait-and-see approach, so will the players. The company needs to show how serious it is so that users can get genuinely excited. I think that’s only fair.”
At the time of writing, most games released since the series revival have been accepted by fans, although Silent Hill: Ascension remains an outlier. Alongside the company’s ongoing revival of Metal Gear Solid, which not only received a well-regarded remake but also has more remasters in the works, Konami is doing well to repair its historically damaged relationship with gamers.
Of course, just because the current state of the series is going well, that doesn’t mean fans shouldn’t be wary of future releases. The upcoming movie, Return to Silent Hill, has been wet with a great deal of criticism from fans, and there’s still some trepidation towards Townfall, an entry that has been largely in hiding since its initial reveal.
Nevertheless, as a fan of Konami’s historic horror series, it’s great to see Silent Hill back in the forefront. While it’s sales will likely never be as high as Capcom’s trend-setting Resident Evil, the games are great and the vibe is immaculate. It also helps that the series is finally selling quite well.
