Konami confirms Silent Hills is cancelled but series lives on

Update

Just to put the nail in the coffin of Silent Hills, Konami has confirmed to Kotaku that Kojima and Del Toro's addition to the series is officially no longer happening. A statement reads:

"Konami is committed to new Silent Hill titles, however the embryonic ‘Silent Hills’ project developed with Guillermo del Toro and featuring the likeness of Norman Reedus will not be continued.

In terms of Kojima and Del Toro being involved, discussions on future Silent Hill projects are currently underway, and please stay tuned for further announcements."

As we stated earlier, Konami will still be working on the horror franchise but Silent Hills in its current form is now officially dead. If you need us, we'll be here. Sobbing and listening to Akira Yamaoka.

Original Story

As if it isn’t bad enough that it’s Monday, it looks like Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro’s Silent Hills has definitely been cancelled. When asked about the future of the project at a San Francisco Film Festival screening Del Toro himself said “Right now. Officially? It’s not happening and that breaks my greasy heart.”

The news broke from a tweet from an audience member with Del Toro’s quote but you can see the full audience session below and while the audio is a little fuzzy, there’s no mistaking the finality with which Del Toro is discussing the project.

“Kojima and myself have been in touch for many years... I think the vision was amazing. What we had planned was amazing,” he says. “I’m heartbroken. We were trying… I don’t know... I’m gonna ask him and if I can next time we meet - or you see me somewhere - I’ll tell you what we were planning... It was to fuck with your brain really bad... it was truly cutting edge stuff…”

Del Toro also joked that he is the “albatross of video games” now having had two game projects cancelled while he was working on them; one being THQ’s Insane, and now Silent Hills. However, it looks like this has made the director more focussed. “I’m 50 now,” he says. “I’ve made a decision, I’m going to direct, direct, direct.” While this is great news for film fans, it looks like games have lost the dark mind of Del Toro for good.

In a statement, Konami has confirmed to 12DOVE that it “will continue to develop the Silent Hill series” but it looks like the Kojima and Del Toro version is finished. An update on Konami’s website on Saturday stated that ‘playable teaser’ P.T is going to be pulled from the PSN Store on the 29th adding an extra sense of finality to proceedings.

Here's Konami's full Q&A on the matter:

■Why has the image of Norman Reedus disappeared from the official website? This is because our contract period with him has expired.

■Why is "P.T." no longer available on Playstation Network? Because the distribution period has expired.

■What will happen with regard to "SILENT HILL"? Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. will continue to develop the "SILENT HILL" series.

■What will happen with regard to "P.T."? P.T. was purely created to be a playable teaser for "SILENT HILL."

■What do you mean by “playable teaser”? The playable teaser was a trial edition of "SILENT HILLS" intended to give players an idea of the game concept.

Leading man Normal Reedus has also commented on the end of the project via Twitter, expressing his disappointment at not being involved in the series.

It's a depressing end to what could clearly have been such an incredible game. See here why we think the loss of Silent Hills is the biggest tragedy of the Kojima/Konami fallout.

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