As reported by GamesRadar, Konami has confirmed that horror legend PT will not be making the transition to PlayStation 5. The game is easily the most iconic horror entry on PlayStation 4, one that’s still talked about today, and yet it’s going to sit and rot on the few PlayStation 4 consoles that still have it installed forevermore. The crux of the issue seems to be that the game/demo is not listed on the PlayStation Store, so there’s no way that anyone will be able to download it. PT was de-listed a very long time ago, and it’s been exclusive to the few PlayStation 4 consoles that still have it installed ever since. Now we know this isn’t set to change.
This news came about because some press sites were discussing how the PlayStation 5’s backwards compatibility feature could save PT. Unfortunately, this just prompted the aforementioned response from Konami. The publisher still seems very bitter about the whole situation. I also believe that they’ve probably binned the code, as in they’ve literally deleted it and thrown it out. This is common practice in Japan when it comes to any kind of development, so I don’t think there’s any hope of Konami resurrecting PT, even if they wanted to.
This is really quite sad news. PT shaped an entire generation of horror games. Without it, we probably also wouldn’t have gotten the incredible first-person Half-Life: Alyx, even if it is a VR exclusive. I think that PT is going to be talked about as a fantastic piece of gaming forever now. Since the final game was never made, there’s no way to say that it’s good or bad, all we can do is interpret what is there. Locking the demo to the PlayStation 4 almost makes it even more famous because now there will be consoles in museums that still have the demo running.
I can’t believe that this fantastic game never got made. It’s one of the industry’s biggest flops, but not for the usual reasons. I would love to see the idea expanded by a dedicated team working on the Silent Hill franchise one day. Until then though, hang onto those PlayStation 4s.