Silent Hills Cancelled

Following yesterday’s news that Konami would be pulling Silent Hills teaser P.T. from the PlayStation Store next week, director Guillermo del Toro told the audience at a San Francisco Film Society event that his collaboration with Hideo Kojima is no longer a going concern.

The news came by way of a tweet from photojournalist Matt Hackney (via NeoGAF), who was in attendance at last night’s “An Evening with Guillermo del Toro” event in San Francisco.


While del Toro’s comments don’t necessarily mean the Silent Hills project is completely cancelled—we’ll have to wait for official word from publisher Konami on that one—it certainly indicates that at least one of the driving forces behind the game is no longer involved. And with the current muddy relationship status between superstar game director Hideo Kojima and Konami, it’s likely neither is attached. Toss in an apologetic tweet from Silent Hills star Norman Reedus...

Fixed this thread. Carry on with the posting.

smh RETWEETS wtf FAVORITES

LOOOOL

We have a random games thread now kali :P

Silent Hills is no longer a game.

First Capcom Fires Keiji Inafune, and cans Mega Man Legends 3 (One of my most wanted games ever) Now Konami cans Kojima and gives Silent Hills the same big middle finger too.

I know people that bought a freakin PS4 to play the god damned teaser trailer. G F'ing G Konami.

I hope Konami dies in a fire along with Capcom.

What was their reason for this exactly?

Inafune quit since Capcom wouldn't let him be involved in creating Legends 3 due to his position within the company, and nobody knows what is going on with Kojima and Konami at this time. At this point, due to the actual friendship of those two, I wouldn't be surprised to hear Comcept reeling in Kojima as a potential employee, assuming there isn't an honest to goodness Kojima production company created after the dust settles.

With Kojima, and his talk of taboo and how even Ground Zeroes was catching flak for stuff like Paz's muffin bomb and the sex tape, I wouldn't be surprised if Kojima threatened to leave Konami if they tried to censor MGSV, and they called his bluff and he got put out of a job. This has happened before with other bigshots in a variety of industries over the years, and Konami has pushed MG games without him before.

Far as Silent Hill goes, it's a real shame. From what I seen of others playing that demo, it was amazingly detailed and unnerving at points. Could be Kojima related, could be due to conflicts with del Toro. I'm sure our great "investigative journalists" in the gaming sector will be all over this story.

They won't as long as people keep buying their games, and the majority of their fans are blind to the fact of what could have come out and just buys what comes out and loves it.

Man now i'm happy i didn't get a PS4 yet... (was really tempted for the demo decided to just watch it on youtube and wait for game release to see if maybe by then there are enough PS4 games to intrest me)... .

So yeah what's the reason? the P.T. seemed to be getting alot of hype and alot of good comments??? why cancel a game people are dieying to get?

Ask Capcom!

Platinum Games is still a thing.

I'm not worried in the slightest. Even if he has no way to keep the franchises and bring them over, he can still make new games from scratches.
In the worst case, he can pull a Mistwalker or simply retire. I don't mind either way, I'm already annoyed that Zone of the Enders didn't receive more support along the years.

As much as cancelling a game brings hopes down, the people you mention are mere idiots, no other way to put it and the fault is 100% on their back.

You buy a console when a game isn't out, whoever does that is an idiot, period. A teaser has never been a system seller unless your brain has severe issues.
Nowadays it's very hard to justify buying a console before it's 1/2yo considering the games released unless you have money to burn. Even a game like Bloodborn isn't a system seller, and it's probably the best game on PS4 right now.
Regarding KONAMI, I'd be more worried about the mobile market than anything else. Consoles are taking a hit in Japan due to that. People may have laughed back then but, there is a reason why Tanaka (and many other people who were more important than him in the video game industry) fled to the mobile market. There is a reason why everyone is going there and why it's literally SE's #1 market right now.
And the issue with the mobile market is that despite Japan being 50 generations behind us in mobiles, they have things we don't, and we won't.

If Silent Hills was cancelled, it's a mix of "it won't sell due to the console sales themselves" and "we won't reach enough people to make a profit".

An average successful game takes about 2 years to see profits. Tomb Raider (the reboot) and the other "successful" SE games that came out in the past year all needed between 2 and 3 years to become profitable. So, take into consideration that Silent Hills will not sell as much as any of those games (except Mindjack/that 3DS game, forgot the name) and will cost more or at the very least as much considering the people involved and you understand why it just won't work.

People overestimate the "fan factor". Just because 10,000 people have a hard on when a game is announced doesn't justify releasing a game that will never profit or will do after a decade.
Silent Hills is a niche game, and it's way too deep in its niche to make good money right now.
Fatal Frame and RE are the only games that would justify such an investment.

http://kotaku.com/its-official-silent-hills-is-cancelled-1700379816

it's official from the horses mouth! Konami canned "Silent Hills"

but they're still "Dedicated" to bringing us Silent Hill games, like this gem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Hill:_Book_of_Memories

And it is 100% official now.

Konami Press release:

EDIT: And I'm a minute too late ; ;

This Video summarizes the past and the (maybe) likely future of Kojima and Konami itself.
well... something will happen.

Why would Fatal Frame be a better investment choice than Silent Hill? Better market in Japan?

So they can put out skimpy outfit DLC.

i loved Fatal Frame. It was the last game i played that was truly scarey.the thing i don't get is why it would be a better investment.i know only one other person to ever play it,my brother.everyone i know has played silent hill in some iteration.

Tonight is the last night for the PT demo. Tomorrow it is being taken down forever. So get it while you can.

Konami won't even answer if it will still be playable after tomorrow.

Heads up Do NOT delete PT from your PS4 if you have it as you can NEVER download it again.

in other words Norman wanted a ***ton of cash lol.

Right, totally had nothing to do with Kojima, obviously we can't have nice things cause of Norman Reedus.

I have some insight into this if anyone's curious. I don't have any inside information, but I do have about 20 years' experience in this industry at this point, including at the executive level, and can help interpret a lot of Konami's statements and Kojima's silence on the matter.

The principle problem is that Konami is losing money. I know this will be a shock to a lot of gamers who look at the sales numbers and buzz around MGS/SH and assume they must be making bank, but in general, the AAA industry has been in complete free-fall for the past ~5-7 years and even the big studios are feeling the pinch.

The core issue (and I could elaborate more on why but it's too long of a post for here) is that it now costs on average one hundred times as much money to make a AAA console game as it did 15-20 years ago, while the average retail cost for a game has actually decreased over time:



This has been sustainable because the number of customers was also growing at the same time, but the actual AAA customer space hit saturation and stopped growing at an adequate rate to compensate some time ago. This means that profit margins are now so very, very low that even one game not making back 2-3x its cost and you have to close the studio because you don't have enough money to make another game. With development costs now reaching and exceeding $100M in many cases, and with studios only making about $15-20 (or less) from each sale, you can see why sales numbers in the millions of units -- while impressive -- just aren't good enough anymore. It's become an absurdly risky business.

Meanwhile, mobile gaming is going through the roof because by and large, it is an untapped market of casual gamers that are willing to spend just as much money for games that still cost, on average, one tenth to one hundredth the cost of a AAA game. This puts these studios in far stronger position to survive long-term, and many developers are actually happy because one or two of these games can fail and everyone doesn't lose their jobs. I personally refuse to work on most mobile games anymore because I find their business practices unethical, but at the same time, many studios are being forced to go this route because AAA has simply become too risky.

Kojima is a big name and will only work on big, expensive titles. Konami is out of money, Kojima's projects are all late and significantly over-budget, and there was likely a stand-off at the very high level about whether they should continue to bet the company by doubling down and giving him more to finish. Konami's shareholders recently decided to replace all the senior management, including the CEO, and it's likely the new executive team decided they could no longer afford to bet on a handful of big Kojima titles if they wanted to save the company. Hence their announcement about changing Konami to be a mobile-first company.

Now, keep in mind: big names like Kojima are not normal employees in this industry. They are employed more like movie stars. They are not typically standard W-2 equivalent workers like you and me, but work under executive contract. This is a two-way negotiated employment term that protects both sides in case of disputes like this. They usually go something like this:

"I will work for you for (typically two years) for this pre-set amount of money. I agree that I am not eligible for promotion of raises during this time and will not receive performance reviews. I have no expectation of further permanent employment and we will re-negotiate a new contract at the end of these two years. You may elect not to renew the contract for any reason, no harm no foul, or you may choose to renegotiate another two year term with my agent for a higher or lower rate depending on how well I've done.

In exchange for giving up this regular employment status, you agree that you may not terminate/fire me during these two years without paying a substantial penalty for breach of contract, in order to give me the operational freedom I need to make important but likely unpopular decisions during this time.

If you elect to fire me and pay the penalty anyway, in exchange for this payout I permanently agree not to discuss the terms or reasons publicly, in order to not cause any further financial or operational damage to the company on the way out. I also permanently agree to waive my right to sue the company for any reason beyond the terms of this contract, and vice versa."

I have little doubt that this is what is occurring here. Konami is going to become a mobile company because it's out of money and can no longer make big bets on AAA games under people like Kojima. That company has effectively gone out of business, and you are safe to mourn it appropriately. It is rebooting as a casual/mobile studio and likely little remains except the name and logo. MGS was likely considered too far along to cancel, but has been given an unmoveable deadline and a set amount of money to finish and that's it.

The team has likely been moved to contractor status through this time, and told they will either be moving to mobile games or leaving after the game ships. Many likely left at this news, and so before or concurrent with the announcement the whole MSG team would have had their internal network, source code, etc. rights curtailed to the bare minimum needed to finish MSG, to match those of an external contract group. (In case disaffected MSG employees decide to say, grab all the source for other Konami games on the way out.)

As far as Kojima is concerned, one of two things likely happened: 1) they basically removed Kojima from effective control and told him to simply no longer show up for work, but will continue to keep him on payroll through the end of his contract to avoid paying the severance penalty. This is actually very common, and would explain why Konami insists that he is "still an employee" while failing to explain what he is actually still in charge of, and why his name has been removed from publicity and marketing. Or 2) they actually fired him, paid the penalty, but both them and Kojima are now legally obligated to not discuss the terms or reasoning for the severance in order to avoid causing further harm to the Konami brand and/or Kojima's personal reputation.

Holy necro-admin Batman!

If the gaming market shifts to mobile games, I'm going to flip a ***...