Konami Cancelling Silent Hills Is A Good Thing

Pixel Gate UK turns a negative into a positive by looking at the further effects of Silent Hills cancellation:

''Silent Hills, the game that looked set to do what Konami had been trying to do for years, is now officially dead…and that’s great news. It might surprise some people that there’s at least one person whose happy about the cancellation, but I have my reasons, and none of them are ill willed. Silent Hills was always going to be a victim of it’s own success, well specifically P.T’s success, cast firmly in the shadow of expectation of a industry that is unashamedly fickle.''

[AaronPS]

Hopefully it'll allow Kojima and Del Toro to make their own horror game on par with or scarier than PT.

[PixelGateUk]

Be tricky, i mean Del Toro has a large work load on at the moment

[fr0sty]

Yes, but any game project he'd get involved in would be at least 3-4 years out for full development. Since Konami likely owns Fox Engine, Koji would have to make a new one. That could give Del Toro time to finish his current work while they got the tech side of things in place.

[Sashamaz]

Rather than make a new one why not just use one of the awesome existing ones. Making a game engine from nothing is extremely costly.

[darren_poolies]

Del Toro basically said he's done with games now.

[MrSwankSinatra]

The crazy thing is that people are actually canceling their MGSV pre-orders or saying they're going to buy used instead because this game got canceled, which is beyond stupid. The people who are doing that are causing more harm to people that spent years involved in making that game than good. They honestly think that just because they buy MGSV used (or not at all) it's somehow going to hurt Konami which is laughable. Hate to break it to you people, but Konami makes more money in Japanese pachhinko machines than in the traditional gaming market.

[HiddenMission]

Actually Konami might be in a money problem since they're coming off the new York Stock exchange. Not purchasing a title that probably cost $40 to $60 million to make alone with the money spent on the engine behind it could cripple a company...

Just food for thought.

[MrSwankSinatra]

You do know Konami could recoup what money they lost by just licensing out the fox engine? Not supporting MGSV only hurts Kojima, Kojima Producitions, and the rest of the people working on the game.

@_-EDMIX-_ Not saying that they get payed per copy, but I'm pretty sure they get some sort of revenue based on how well the game performs. I mean for all intent and purposes game companies have all sorts of contracts with creators. Look at Obsidian for instance they could have gotten a large sum of revenue based on how well their game performed critically on metacrtic.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@MrSwank- "Not supporting MGSV only hurts Kojima, Kojima Producitions, and the rest of the people working on the game"

No...no it doesn't, they don't get payed per copy, they are contracted out. The game can go on to sell 3 billion and it wouldn't just net Kojima more money...

They pay him to work on the game, they don't pay him per copy as thats pretty crazy.

He doesn't own the IP, Konami does.

[deadpoolio316]

Here is some better more informed food for though....Konami is not just a video game company...They are going nowhere, and make bank off of their other divisions, they could never make another game for consoles again and still make boat loads of money off of everything else they do

[spacedelete]

@_-Edmix-_ i'm sure developers get a small portion of a game sale. most of the money goes to the publisher, console makers and manfacturing but they do developers get paid as well with a game sale. how would developers survive with just the money from developing games ? exactly. not sure where you got the idea developers don't get paid game sales.

[Anorexorcist]

In addition to your point, why WOULD long-time Metal Gear fans NOT want to support Kojima's final MG project by buying and playing it? Sure I wasn't pleased with Konami giving Kojima the boot like he was some lazy a$$ seasonal intern, but I love the Metal Gear games and MGS5 is Kojima's curtain call.

Plus the strategy of everyone buying into MGS5 (and not just buying used copies) and THEN boycotting the next MGS title without Kojima's involvement would drive that point a lot harder, I think; Causing a major drop-off in sales for the next Metal Gear installment would have a better chance at catching Konami's attention.

[Revolver_X_]

Konami is going to make money. Question is will their games make money? At this point I would prefer to run Konami out of the industry and they sell off their IP's to pubs who will attempt to make a worthwhile game from them. Silent Hill hasn't been good in many years. And if you want to get a good sense of Kojimas team without him, look at how long they dropped the ball with MGR, until it was given to Platinum Games.

This whole notion of if people boycott MGS5 it sends the wrong message is laughable. Kojima's name has been stricken from the game and practically been erased from it's history for all intents and purposes. I doubt Kojima gives a flying F*** about what happens in the end. Kojima releases one PR generic statement and that's it. I really think Kojima is just tired of it all. He's wanted out since MGS2. I truly have not decided how I will purchase MGS5, only that I will, out of deep love of the franchise. I certainly cannot blame anyone who wishes ill will towards Konami, as a company, not the hard working people there. Lets face it though, the programmers, etc., they've gotten paid. It's the suits that get the bonuses, and I for one won't feel bad for them, if they take a hit due to used game sales. Lastly, keep in mind what type of success MGS5 achieves. Commercial success and critical acclaim are two different things. While I have no doubt that MGS5 will be commercially successful, since the majority of gamers don't really follow news, I care more that MGS5 is successful critically.

[MrSwankSinatra]

Let's be honest here after MGSV nobody will have faith in anything Konami makes after, I know I don't. MGSV is pretty much the last of the Mahicans for Konami

[Revolver_X_]

I completely agree with you there. So sad, I really grew up on Konami. From Castlevania and Contra to MGS and Silent Hill.

R.I.P Konami

[MysticStrummer]

People not buying the game or getting it used will still mean less money for Konami, so I don't see your point at all.

I'll buy it in support of Kojima and because it'll be his last MG game, barring an alignment of gaming stars that results in a sale of the IP to whoever Kojima ends up working for. Hell even if that happens he's been wanting to do new things for a long time so this may still be his last MG anyway.

[rdgneoz3]

Exactly. Kojima and his people are all getting laid off after the game as it is, it's not like it'll help them keep their job at all. Only ones it'll be hurting are Konami who are screwing over Kojima and fans of MGS/Silent Hill.

I'll be getting the game as it'll be the last true MGS game. Looking forward to see what Kojima and his crew will be working on next.

[TricksterArrow]

Well, I hope they do make more money off other things then, because I see no bright future in the games department. I for one, do not intend to buy anything from this company anymore.

[Palitera]

"The people who are doing that are causing more harm to people that spent years involved in making that game than good."

That's where you are very very wrong.

They are making no difference at all. Period.

[mogwaii]

The thing is it will send a powerful message to konami, thats the point.

[Gwiz]

Why is it a good thing?honestly i think it's not.I'm pretty pissed actually
about the whole situation with Kojima and now not knowing if MGS:PP
is going to deliver a SOLID SNAKE experience.

[Alex_Boro]

No its not.

[Codewow]

I love everyone has to justify why it's a good or bad thing for everything. "It's a good thing to have paid mods!" "It's a good thing a game a lot of people were getting excited for has been cancelled!" "It's a good thing Half-Life 3 is not confirmed!"

[Genova84]

"You know what to say whenever something strange happens, 'It's good that Bart did that! It's very, very good!'"

[PixelGateUk]

I'm not justifying anything, it's a topic that resulted in people having opinions. Would you prefer everyone to just stay silent? isn't half the enjoyment of a hobby being able to talk about it?

[jhoward585]

I Agree with this article. Its not the end of the road here which is a good thing.

Kojima now has the freedom to do what ever he wants.

[PixelGateUk]

I think, at this point, it's best for both parties...plus it gives re-newned interest in the SH brand...hopefully konami do not mess it up (again)

But thank you for the kind words

[jhoward585]

You're welcome. I agree, it gives re-newned interest in the SH brand.
Kojima is good at what he does, however, there's always the option to hire someone else to finish SH. imo I think konami should hire stephen king.

[rdgneoz3]

"..plus it gives re-newned interest in the SH brand"

You had Kojima (who's made great games) and Guillermo del Toro working on it. P.T. was great and was well received. What happens next will probably be seen as a huge step down from what could have been.

[averagejoe26]

I just hope this game resurfaces somewhere... And that it isn't changed at all.

[itsjustexuma]

Not making articles like this and moving on is also a good thing

[iNFAMOUZ1]

konami cancelling silent hills is not a good thing, your just looking for a reason to write an article for hits.

[kenwonobi]

It is not a good thing. It is horrible. They should be embarrassed.

[TekKing]

cancelling it = Konami bankrupt

[wheatley]

It is a very bad thing for Konami, obviously. But if Del Toro and Kojima want to work on a horror game together using the Fox engine then please go right ahead.

[Zero-One]

The internet always love to be devil's advocate, huh? Well at least now, Kojima can do what he wants and likely keep working with Del Toro. Let Konami live off their Yu-Gi-Oh money then, either way, still shooting themselves in the foot.

[Yourmommasaid]

Sure! Why not ask From Software (Bloodborne) to make a new Castlevania for that matter... and then cancel it!

[Picnic]

When they said that the playable teaser wasn't going to be featured in the actual game, that alone rang some alarm bells with me.

Not that the game wouldn't be finished but that the actual released game wouldn't try to have the persistent, condensed, dread of the demo.

Surely it must be in someone's interests to finish the game. If they leave it too long it will be stale, just another mismanagement in old school survival horror that reminds us why the likes of Bioshock were such a welcome entry.

Or maybe we've been spared a disappointment and this might eventually result in someone making an actually scarier game that what was originally likely. If someone continues the game entirely in that domestic setting PT style rather than switching to a style reminiscent of many other games then maybe it might end up a more pure horror experience than originally planned. To be honest, when I found out that the PT was Silent Hill related, it wasn't actually a plus point for me (although I was pleased for the individuals personally that they appeared to be freshening up the series). I just thought how they might end up diluting that teaser by putting in the same old spinning wheelchairs and the like and the usual overdone religious overtones mythology.

Even the pluralised title suggests some Bioshock Infinite inspired idea of multiple universes that probably wouldn't be pulled off as a whole game as well as the teaser does it.