A little over a year ago, in October of 2022, Konami confirmed after years of rumours and speculation that it was finally bringing Silent Hill back from the dead. Multiple new Silent Hill projects were announced, from Silent Hill f, the next mainline game in the series, to Silent Hill: Townfall, a narrative-driven horror adventure spinoff- but the one that captured most people’s attention in that batch of exciting new announcements was a ground-up remake of Silent Hill 2. Sure, the prospect of a legendary game with Silent Hill 2’s legacy being potentially tampered with in a new adaptation is a nerve-wracking one, especially since developer Bloober Team has a track record that can best be described as patchy, but it’s hard not to be excited about the possibility of an incredible remake of the 2001 classic that succeeds in the same ways that, say, 2019’s Resident Evil 2 remake did.
And yet, as time has gone on, that excitement has started to turn into restlessness. In the year since the Silent Hill 2 remake’s announcement, there have been little to no updates on it from either Konami or Bloober Team. There have been no new trailers, no gameplay showings, no communications on a release window or how the development is going- almost nothing that would give us any new information that we hadn’t already received back when the game was first announced. And that, as you might imagine, has prompted many to ask the question- just where the hell is Silent Hill 2?
Until as recently as a few months ago, there were many who were operating under the assumption that the remake had a good chance of launching sometime in 2023. Of course, Konami itself never said as much, and when the game was first announced, it wasn’t given a release window. Developer Bloober Team, however, has given a few indications over the months that Silent Hill 2 might not be too far away from releasing. Shortly after the remake’s announcement, the developer said that the project was nearing the end of development, something that it reiterated as recently as March earlier this year (while also adding that regardless of the state of development, a release date was something only Konami would decide and announce). Hell, even the system requirements for the game’s PC version have been available since October last year, which means that by and large its technical aspects have been nailed down.
With all of that in mind, it’s easy to see why many assumed that Silent Hill 2 would be out sometime this year. But it’s not so much the fact that the game isn’t launching in 2023 that has raised a few eyebrows- anyone with any sort of familiarity with the games industry knows that if there’s one thing that you can never put too much stock in, it’s a release date or window for a game, any game. What has raised eyebrows, however, is the fact that, in spite of the remake evidently being in the final stages of development, we haven’t heard a peep out of Konami for over a year.
From the PlayStation Showcase that took place earlier this year to Summer Game Fest, from Gamescom to Tokyo Game Show, multiple events and showcases that many would have deemed appropriate stages for new showings of Silent Hill 2 have come and gone, and yet Konami has remained silent. Many had hoped that perhaps we’d be getting another showcase dedicated entirely to the Silent Hill franchise in October, just as we did last year – after all, the aforementioned Silent Hill f and Silent Hill: Townfall are in the same boat as Silent Hill 2 in terms of a lack of new updates – but that, sadly, hasn’t happened either.
So is it simply a company-wide strategy adopted by Konami as it looks to re-enter the AAA gaming space? Well, it doesn’t seem like that’s quite it. After all, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater got a new in-engine gameplay trailer not too long ago, just a few months after its official announcement earlier this year, so clearly Konami isn’t averse to offering new looks at some of its major upcoming titles. Meanwhile, one would also assume that the company hasn’t adopted that strategy specifically for Silent Hill, given how arbitrary that seems (although you never know, especially where Konami is concerned). The best case scenario would be that Konami and Bloober Team are simply focusing on getting the game to the highest possible level of quality they can before they talk about it again. The worst case scenario, meanwhile, would be that the game has run into development issues, of which there’s been no indication so far.
The much more pertinent question, however, is this- when exactly are we going to hear more about Silent Hill 2 again? With the game apparently having been in the final stages of development for a while now, should we assume that the plan is to begin talking about it again when it’s more or less ready for release, and then launch it not long afterward? And will Konami choose to align its next showing with a full-fledged event – whether that be The Game Awards, a State of Play presentation, or the next PlayStation Showcase – or will it decide to instead make the announcement on its own terms?
Our hope is that Silent Hill 2’s remake is going to be out sometime in 2024, and if that is indeed the case, it shouldn’t be too long before Konami and Bloober Team start sharing new details about it and reveal a firm release date. Admittedly, that’s exactly the sort of hope that we’ve clung to for all of 2023, and it’s exactly that hope that’s led us to disappointment after disappointment, from a no-show at the PlayStation Showcase to a no-show at Tokyo Game Show to a no-show at a dedicated event in October and everything in between. But even so, it’s hard to imagine this game slipping into 2025, given the fact that it was said to be nearing the end of development mere days after its announcement in October last year. Unless something has gone wrong behind the scenes and Konami has decided to internally delay the remake’s release, logic would dictate that it will be releasing sometime in 2024, and that, in turn, new showings and updates will be arriving in the not-too-distant future as well.
If, however, Konami and Bloober Team have decided to delay the game, I think I speak for all Silent Hill fans when I say that that would be preferable to a rushed release. The franchise has been dormant for a long, long time, and Silent Hill 2 itself is a special game in more ways than one, so this is a release that, more than most others, needs to be done perfectly. So if more time is what Silent Hill 2’s remake needs, more time is what it should get- though even in that scenario, we sure would love a new gameplay trailer…
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
