Silent Hill is currently dead. After Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills was canned, there’s been no news of a follow-up, despite the perpetual unfounded rumors of Sony buying the IP and/or Konami resurrecting it. As a longtime fan, this state of affairs is intensely frustrating, especially as Resident Evil moves from strength to strength and we got a tantalizing taste of a current-gen Silent Hill via the amazing P.T. demo.
But there’s a bit of news that’s broken recently that might show some light at the end of the tunnel. Keiichiro Toyama, who created the series and went on to mastermind the similarly excellent Siren franchise, has announced a new horror title. Earlier this year, he founded Bokeh Game Studio and in an interview with IGN Japan, explained that their first project will “appeal to fans of my previous work.”
“If anything, this will be more of a horror-oriented game,” he said. “But we will focus on making this a broader entertainment experience, rather than a hardcore horror game.”
It’s an intriguing-sounding game, but here’s hoping this “broader” experience doesn’t skimp on the spooky stuff. Further information is thin on the ground, though Toyama revealed that the lead platform is currently PC, that it’s aiming for a 2023 launch and thus presumably will be released on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Other than Silent Hill and Siren, Toyama has an admirable gaming pedigree. His most recent efforts are the Gravity Rush titles, which are extremely neat and stylish. Other than that, he’s also responsible for character art on the cult Sega CD classic Snatcher, which seriously deserves some kind of re-release as original copies can cost over $400 (and if you want a factory sealed version, you’re looking at over $1000).
It’s early days for the studio and the game, of course, but if Toyama can bring the atmosphere and ambience that made Silent Hill and Siren so bone-chilling, we may be onto something very special.