A recent report from VGC indicated that Konami is now open to more outsourcing as the result of some recent success in that area. I’m definitely on board with this because it means that we might finally get to see something else from the company outside of its Pachinko machine obsession. There are two key IPs I think need some work, and the first is obviously Silent Hill. The second is Metal Gear Solid, specifically a version of Metal Gear Survival that isn’t completely microtransaction trash, but we can’t all ask for miracles. A new Silent Hill would reinvigorate a fan base that will literally play anything. We’re all so excited for a new game that it doesn’t matter if it’s terrible, we’ll still find something to love in it. However, by outsourcing the work, Konami can ensure that the game is good for the first time in a very long time.
The team behind Silent Hill and what made it good were slowly separated over the years, and by Silent Hill 5, things were very different. The games aren’t Silent Hill titles from that point, and you can really tell. We had some promising results from Hideo Kojima, but now we all know Silent Hills is never going to happen, so let’s let that one lie.
Konami has a big opportunity to reach out to some genuinely brilliant horror developers and get them to make Silent Hill good again. All it needs is a team who is passionate about scaring the pants off of players, and then things will feel right in the world once more. Silent Hill was always about this sense of existential terror that you could never quite shake. Capcom has captured a lot of it with Resident Evil 7 and Village, showing that it’s still worth pursuing.
The bottom line here is that we need someone to take a look at horror now and make a Silent Hill game that lives up to it, exceeds it even. Konami has the power to do this today, but it relies on the company letting go of that beloved franchise and allowing someone else to put their stamp on it.