Konami has been through a strong internal restructuring over the last ten years or so, with the publisher often looking less and less interested in gaming. That’s been painful for many fans around the world, as they’ve been with Konami for the better part of their childhoods, or spent dozens of hours on PS1 masterpieces such as Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid.
Now that eFootball is finally leaving behind its troubled kick-off, and that the pandemic has convinced Konami that gaming could still be a viable business, people can clearly see winds of change at the Japanese publisher.
The label still owns intellectual properties such as Silent Hill, whose revival fans have been eagerly demanding for years.
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To that purpose, Silent Hill Transmission – a digital event fully focused on the survival horror franchise, and aired in October – has revealed the future of the sleeping giant, and this has completely changed people’s opinion about Konami already.
Does Konami feel the winds of change internally, too? We’ve asked David Monk, eFootball’s senior partnerships and activations manager at Konami.
“Completely,” Monk tells GLHF. “It’s a good analogy. When you say winds of change, I would say innovation. And I would say trailblazing to a certain extent, because there is a really strong portfolio of titles coming out.”
“And so, as we saw with Silent Hill, there’s an opportunity that’s coming in a series [of games] that will be released, and will be really, really cool for everybody who’s loved all the historic titles and the IP.”
On top of that, “we’re able to continually develop that, and bring that to a new technology base. That’s really important for us.”
And something new is coming to Silent Hill, indeed. Silent Hill: Ascension is set to be a Black Mirror: Bandersnatch-like interactive drama series, while Silent Hill f is coming from Taiwanese developer Neobards Entertainment under Ryukishi07’s eclectic direction, and is set in Japan’s 1960s.
After completely skipping PS4 and Xbox One, it’s a big deal. There’s a Silent Hill 2 remake coming from Bloober Team, and No Code (Observation) is also working on a Silent Hill psychological thriller called Towerfall. The movie franchise is making a comeback, too, with Return to Silent Hill coming from the same director as the original film, Christophe Gans.
This expansive approach has strengthened fans’ confidence in other IPs making a comeback. Rumors have suggested new Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania games could be in development, with a Snake Eater remaster recently linked to Virtuos Games.
Written by Paolo Sirio on behalf of GLHF.
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