Konami Launches 'Silent Hill' Twitter Account, Fuels Rumors Of Franchise Reboot

By launching an official Twitter account for “Silent Hill,” publisher Konami has fueled speculation that a new game in the popular horror franchise is coming.

Konami’s social media team apologized on Friday for “firing up” fans with a “Silent Hill”-related tweet, saying that anything official or potential future announcements would come first from the newly-created @SilentHill and not from @Konami.

@SilentHill was just created in July 2020 and, thus far, the account has been sharing fan art and promoting the “Silent Hill” crossover with Canadian video game developer Behaviour Interactive’s “Dead by Daylight.”

Video Games Chronicle notes that, according to a noted insider, a new “Silent Hill” game is “100%” in development and likely to be announced this year.

Previously, however, a Konami representative labeled as untrue separate claims that it was planning to reboot the “Silent Hill” franchise in partnership with PlayStation.

The original “Silent Hill” was released in 1999, developed by Team Silent, a group in Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. It was published by Konami for the original PlayStation and was a massive hit for introducing psychological horror elements to video games. “Silent Hill 2” followed in 2001 and 2003 saw the release of “Silent Hill 3.”

A report published in March claimed that Silent Hill’s original development leads were helming a new installment backed by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Masahiro Ito (art director for the series’ first three games), Keiichiro Toyama (director and writer of the original 1999 “Silent Hill”), and Akira Yamaoka (series composer) were all said to be working on the new project.

So successful was the original “Silent Hill” that, in 2006, a film adaptation was released incorporating elements of “Silent Hill 2,” “Silent Hill 3,” and “Silent Hill 4.” Directed by Christophe Gans, the film was largely panned by critics even though it was a financial success.

A "reimagining" of “Silent Hill,” titled “Silent Hill: Shattered Memories,” was developed by Climax Studios and published by Konami Digital Entertainment. The game was released on December 8, 2009, for the Wii and on January 19, 2010, for the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation Portable, to mostly positive reviews.

The rumored "Silent Hills" collaboration between Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro, and Norman Reedus was able to come out with a playable teaser in 2014 but was eventually canceled and Kojima parted ways with Konami.

The subject of the most recent rumors about the franchise was described as a “soft reboot” of the series developed in collaboration with Sony Japan Studio, the first-party developer who previously helped co-create “Bloodborne” and “The Last Guardian,” says Video Games Chronicle.