2012 Konami President asked Kojima to develop the next Silent Hill.
In September of 2012 Hideo Kojima first talked about how his newly build "Foxengine" might also be used for other Konami properties like "Silent Hill"...
"Kojima said that the engine, though unfinished, is already at a level that his company can start making a game with it. He teased the possibility of another Konami property, Silent Hill, taking advantage of the engine, but until Saturday, the content of Kojima's game was unknown. "
Later that month Kojima personally confirmed that the then president of Konami "Tomoyuki Tsuboi" personally asked him to develop the next entry in the "Silent Hill" franchise.
"In the past I've mentioned Silent Hill in interviews, and as a result of that the president of Konami rung me up and said he'd like me to make the next Silent Hill"
2013 Kojima meets with Junji Ito.
In June 2013 Kojima tweeted that he had dinner with Junji Ito (first hinting at a possible collaboration).
https://twitter.com/hideo_kojima_en/status/350503478285705217
2014 P.T. the greatest demo ever made.
In august of 2014 during "Gamescom" P.T. was announced alongside a short trailer of the game
A new horror game developed by "7780's Studio".
The P.T. demo was available at the PSN Store that same night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnMJ0urMz54
Not even 24 hours after the announcement players had cracked the puzzle of the P.T. demo
and discovered that there was a suprise reveal at the end of the game.
P.T. was actually a teaser for the next entry in the "Silent Hill" franchise , called "Silent Hill(s)"Developed by "Kojima Productions" and "Konami".
Similar to MGSV's marketing campaign Kojima had set up a fake studio to play a little game with the fans.
The game would be co-published by "Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE)" and co-directed by famous Film-Director and longtime friend of Hideo Kojima , "Guillermo del Toro" .
"The Walking Dead" and "The Boondock Saints" shootingstar "Norman Reedus" was set to play the main protagonist of the game.
http://enemyslime.com/2014/08/silent-hills-announcement/
The Demo quickly went viral...
In September at "Tokyo Game Show 2014" (only one month after the release of P.T. , Sony announced that the demo had been download over a million times already. (source: Wikipedia)
The P.T. demo was a hit!
Player's, as well as the gaming-press highly praised what Kojima and his Team had done with the game.
Gamespot awarded it the "game of the month" for August 2014
Marty Sliva (IGN) describing it as "one of the most interesting, gorgeous, and terrifying" games he played that year.
It won "Scariest Game" at Bloody Disgusting's FEAR Awards ,and also Innovation in Game Technology at the 2014 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) awards.
At "Tokyo Game Show 2014" Kojima also revealed a "concept movie" for Silent Hills as well as a video message from Guillermo Del Toro.
Concept Movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7EUdJofvck
Del Toro's Video Message:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzpNKTQK5Aw
Hideo Kojima also discussed the game design of the demo at the "P.T. Visible Stage" during the event.
The video has never been fully translated to my knowledge, so unfortunately I can't tell you much about it.
What I can tell you though is that during the presentation there was a title card shown that u/Jestkmon roughly translated for me.
Thank you buddy!
" Sorry. a little busy right now so I can't provide a exact translation but the first part it starts out by saying that the keyword is 27, which the people there joke(I think) about it being about age. Then they move onto the three questions with A saying that it was Metal Gear was made when he was 27 years old. B says something about I think that Metal Gear was the 27th game made by them? And then C says that Metal Gear was made by the 27th team. "
If you ask me the last part of the translation could mean that P.T. was made by a team of 27 people even though it is credited with 31. (that is just speculation though.)
P.T. Visable Stage Presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q703v6qa2G4
Needless to say , everybody was hyped for "Silent Hills"!
2015 (P)han(T)om pain... Kojima vs. Konami
In early 2015 things started to take a turn.
on march 4th during the promo-campaign for "Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain" Kojima told IGN:
"I always say 'this will be my last Metal Gear,'" Kojima said, "but the games in the series that I've personally designed and produced -- Metal Gear on MSX, MG2, MGS1, 2, 3, 4, Peace Walker, and now MGSV -- are what constitute a single 'Metal Gear Saga.' With MGSV, I'm finally closing the loop on that saga."
"In that sense, this will be the final 'Metal Gear Solid,'" Kojima continued. "Even if the 'Metal Gear' franchise continues, this is the last 'Metal Gear.'"
At the end of march, the famous line "A HIDEO KOJIMA GAME" vanishes from all promotional material including the box art of MGSV.
At the same time , some insider claim that Hideo Kojima is leaving Konami because of power struggles between the developers and the higher-ups at Konami.
Konami doesn't comment on any of the rumors but at the same time they start hiring for a new team to develop the next "Metal Gear Solid".
In early April Kojima's name also vanishes from the P.T. (Silent Hills) website.
On April 10th, Voice actress and singer of MGSV's title theme Donna Burke (Silent Hill 2 and MGSV)
tweeted the following in response to a fan asking if he should boycott MGSV:
"Yes don't throw away the Kojima teams work over the last 5 years because upper management fired a genius."
At this point everybody knew the situation was bad , like really bad.
And the biggest question fans had at this point was
"what is happening with silent hills?"
On April 24th 2015, Guillermo Del Toro, told attendees at a film festival in San Francisco that Silent Hills "is not gonna happen,"
On April 27th 2015, Konami officialy confirmed that Silent Hills was cancelled
"Konami is committed to new Silent Hill titles," Konami told Polygon, "however the embryonic Silent Hills project developed with Guillermo del Toro and featuring the likeness of Norman Reedus will not be continued."
In addition to that, Konami would permanently remove P.T. from the Playstation Store.
Making it inaccessible for everyone who hadn't downloaded it and kept it on their consoles.
...
Players from all over the world were shocked by the cancellation of the Project.
Some were Silently mourning the loss of what could have been...
others were openly expressing their anger towards Konami...
And some even tried to revive the game by starting petitions at Change.org.
The biggest petition was signed by almost 200.000 people , including Guillermo Del Toro...who also left a few words for all the people hoping to change Konami's minds:
" Guillermo Del Toro has not only noticed our petition, but he also signed it and said he hopes we can change some minds! The efforts are starting to pay off! Thanks to everyone, let´s change those minds together! :)"
https://www.change.org/p/kojima-productions-continue-working-on-silent-hills/u/10843445
Meanwhile insiders started leaking some really terrifying details about Konami's corporate climate and what led to Kojima being fired.
If you want a full rundown of things , I recommend you watch Supperbunnyhopp's videos on the matter.
Kojima vs. Konami: An Investigation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMK-kajdgMA
Konami vs. The Internet: A Follow-Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nwPPYkd8gs
Towards the end of 2015 Guillermo Del Toro expressed his feelings on the cancelled Silent Hills multiple times.
Guillermo del Toro: Silent Hills cancellation 'makes no sense'
https://www.polygon.com/2015/10/14/9532845/guillermo-del-toro-silent-hills-hideo-kojima-cancellation
On September 1st 2015, Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain is released
The game included a few easter eggs reffering to the P.T. Demo
Including the famous radio broadcast about the father that killed his family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKplRwQNUIU
On September 27th 2015, Guillermo Del Toro revealed that Horror-Manga-Artist Junji Ito would have collaborated with him and Hideo Kojima on Silent Hill(s).
https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/648117433593655296
On December 15th 2015, Hideo Kojima officialy left Konami.
Prior to him leaving the company , a konami spokesperson said that Hideo Kojima would not be leaving the company but that he would take a vacation break.
https://www.polygon.com/2015/12/15/10220372/hideo-kojima-new-studio-leaves-konami
Prior to him leaving the company , a konami spokesperson said that Hideo Kojima would not be leaving the company but that he would take a vacation break.
On December 16th 2015, only one day after leaving Konami Kojima announced his newly formed studio "Kojima Productions".
That same day a video was uploaded to the official Playstation youtube channel, announcing a partnership between Sony and Kojima Productions.
2016-2019 Death Stranding and what's next for KJP
Since this thread is about Silent Hill(s) I'm gonna leave out the development cycle and release of "Death Stranding".
The only thing I would like to note is that the game featured a lot of actors as well as developers that would have also worked on Silent Hills.
Norman Reedus as Sam Bridges
Guillermo Del Toro as Deadman
Junji Ito as the engineer
Just to name the most important.
Death Stranding was released on November 8th 2019.
On November 1st , Kojima was at a BAFTA panel talking with Nicholas Winding Refn. He said the following about his next project after "Death Stranding".
"I really want to do something a little different. In the next five years, the platform will be streaming. Either it's a movie or a game, both will remain - the cinema experience and the platform of games will remain. But the game, you could broadcast that right now, like esports that you see today. I think there's something ahead, and I'm thinking about that. It's a movie, but it's a game, I'm thinking of that kind of idea, and I want to do that kind of thing."
https://www.gamesradar.com/hideo-kojima-next-game/
On November 16th 2019, Kojima talked again about his next project during an interview with TheGuardian.
“I can’t say right now, but it’s something you’ve never seen […] It’s a game, but also a movie … no, I’m starting to say it! Right now, you can broadcast Esports and people watch it. What’s the next step? A creator creates a game, someone plays it, and in the future, the viewers could become creators, too. I can’t say more than that.”
https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3594365/hideo-kojima-teases-whats-next-death-stranding/
I gotta be honest .. I only found out about this interview while doing research for this thread but... this description sounds an awful lot like a "REALTIME EXPERIENCE" if you ask me... just throwing that in here.
Now comes the fun stuff. :)
On November 20st 2019,
rumors about a secretly developed Konami game called "Project Fog" were spread on resetera:
On November 25th 2019,
Hideo Kojima Tweeted:
"As to make the scariest horror game, I’ll watch the scary movies in order to awaken my horror soul. THE EYE is the Thai horror movie I rent when making PT but was too scary to finish watching. The package is scary so I rented the disc only. Will I be able to finish watching?"
Implicating that his next title might be a horror-game.
https://twitter.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/1197880438603145216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
On December 8th 2019,
a rumor was brought up, stating that Kojima was in talks with Konami to work on a new Silent Hill.
https://gamerant.com/hideo-kojima-silent-hill-konami/
2020 Rumors
On January 4th,
Masahiro Ito (Art Director Silent Hill 1-4) tweeted:
"I'm working on a title as a core member. I hope the title won't be CANCELLED. "
Alluding to Silent Hills cancellation?
https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1213573816393203712?lang=de
On January 23rd,
Sony potentially starts teasing a new horror-game.
https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/23/sony-teasing-new-ps5-game-possibly-new-horror-title-12108835/
On January 24th,
Gamerant published an article about a rumor that Sony would be planning to acquire Kojima Productions and that they would make a Horror game for sony.
https://gamerant.com/rumor-sony-acquires-kojima-productions-new-ps5-horror-game/
On January 26th,
Eurogamer reported that the relationship between Kojima and Konami has improved.
https://www.gamepur.com/news/report-claims-konami-working-on-two-new-trips-to-silent-hill
April 1st 2020,
Kojima talks about P.T. during an interview wit BAFTA.
A word on the remarkable P.T. (2014) – did you anticipate such a strong reaction? Would you like to return to a horror project like that, and are there any other games or series you have worked on that you would like to revisit one day?
P.T. is special. Human fear ultimately stems from the unknown. P.T. was an experiment in producing an effect in response to that nature. So, the reaction was as expected – if anything we could say that it was a great success as a teaser. P.T. was a mysterious game, created by a mysterious studio, with no previous announcement or information, so it used forbidden techniques to increase fear. It was a one-off thing, so we cannot reuse that method again.
I’m easily frightened myself, so I have confidence that I could create something more terrifying than perhaps others could. I get frightened of things like darkness and imagine shadows of ghosts in the dark. Just like Hitchcock or Spielberg did.
P.T. ended as just an experiment, but I would like to make another horror game someday. Something that uses a revolutionary method to create terror, that doesn’t just make you pee your pants, but crap them. I already have ideas in mind.
https://www.bafta.org/games/features/the-fellowship-hideo-kojima
On May 21st,
the semi reliable leaker "Dusk Golem" claimed to have knowledge about a PS5 Exclusive Silent Hill game. Stating that the game has no relation to Hideo Kojima , but is directed by series creator Keichiro Toyama.
(this is now debunked , since Toyama is working on his new IP Slitterhead)
" Just to clear up some things about Silent Hill PS5, from what I know. 100% things: -In 2018 Konami shopped around with different studios for two pitches to fund development of a reboot & an episodic Silent Hill game. I knew this from a personal friend & an email from someone seperately. Neither got the job, but I know this as fact. -
In late 2019, a seperate close friend in Japan informed me a Silent Hill game was being developed in Japan that had started dev at the start of 2019. I started doing some personal investigation from this, A lot of dead ends, but others collaborated this & I did learn about something else which helped later, but promised not to talk about it.
I seperate this part of the story as all of that is stuff I can 100% verify. The rest I believe & have been shown solid evidence, but the following I have evidence to believe, but I can't verify the details (but it is from someone who would know & I verified their identity). So to lay the detaila of this put straight: -It is developed by Sony Japan Studios & will be PS5 exclusive. -Toyama is directing"
https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1/status/1263292380125335552
On May 26th 2020,
It was announced that the popular horror-multiplayer game "Dead By Daylight" would get a "Silent Hill" themed DLC.
https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/26/silent-hill-lives-as-downloadable-content-for-dead-by-daylight/
On May 29th 2020,
Hideo Kojima said that a major project of his , was recently cancelled. ( this was later be revealed to be a scrapped game he was planning to do with Google Stadia.)
On July 28th 2020,
Hideo Kojima and Junji Ito hint at a possible future collaboration.
https://www.pcgamer.com/hideo-kojima-wants-to-work-with-manga-artist-junji-ito-on-a-horror-game/
On October 22nd,
Kojima Productions started hiring new staff for their next project.
https://www.techradar.com/news/hideo-kojima-is-hiring-for-a-new-project-will-it-be-a-ps5-horror-game
On the same day,
during an eposideo of the "kinda funny podcast" an industry insider named "Imran Khan" claims that the Silent Hill(s) rumors are credible.
https://www.gamesradar.com/sony-silent-hill-rumours-are-credible-according-to-industry-insider/
November 29th,
The same leaker that leaked God Of War's (2018) sequel's name "Ragnarök" early "confirms" a Silent Hill PS5 game is in development at Kojima Productions.
https://screenrant.com/silent-hills-ps5-leak-pt-hideo-kojima-return/
2021
Abandoned, 2 New Kojima Games and Kojima Productions L.A
On February 27th 2021,
It was revealed that Kojima Productions was working on a Horror-Game for Google-Stadia that got cancelled.
On March 25th 2021,
Kojima Productions art director Yoji Shinkawa told AI HUB. That Kojima Productions next project is going to be announced "quite soon".
On April 7th 2021,
Hasan Kahraman , the head of then unknown gamedeveloper "BlueBox Game Studios" made a post on the Playstation-Blog about his game "ABANDONED".
An action-horror-survival-sim exclusive for the PS5.
He announced the release window would be Q4 2021.
"Hello everyone! I’m Hasan Kahraman from Blue Box Game Studios based in The Netherlands. The team and I are working on our new title, coming exclusively to PS5 this year and I can’t wait to show off some gameplay footage from the game in action. However, since the game is at an early development stage, I wanted to announce the game today and show off a little announcement teaser we made.
Abandoned is a cinematic, first-person horror survival shooter set in a highly detailed open world environment and favours a realistic approach to survival."
Kahraman also shared a short Teaser for the game.
https://blog.playstation.com/2021/04/07/abandoned-a-cinematic-survival-sim-hits-ps5-later-this-year/
One of the very first comments on the Blogpost reads:
" bedhead1 April 7, 2021 at 9:11 PM GMT+2
Something is going on here, I’m just going to say this..
Hi Hideo 🙃"
another one reads:
"iiBathory April 7, 2021 at 9:16 PM GMT+2
Oh this absolutely reeks of Kojima"
On April 8th 2021,
Bluebox Game Studio posted a statement about the "Kojima Rumors" on their website that read the following:
"We have no association with Hideo Kojima nor do we claim to have any association nor was it our intention to claim such a statement. We are a small group of developers working on a passionate title we wanted to work on for a long time."
Big gaming outlets like IGN picked up the story
After a few days the rumors slowly died out... until...
On May 31st 2021,
BlueBox Game Studios announced the release of the "ABANDONED: REALTIME EXPERIENCE".
https://www.psfanatic.com/abandoned-developers-announce-realtime-trailer-app-for-ps5/
On June 15th 2021,
Bluebox Game Studios,
tweeted the following:
Guess the name:Abandoned = (First letter S, Last letter L). Reveal closing in... #PS5 #Exclusive
Obviously all of us thought the same thing...
...
SILENT HILL
However, later that day they tweeted this
We wanted to set things straight. We have no relations with Konami. Silent Hill is owned by Konami. We do not have any relations with Hideo Kojima. It was never our intention to tease the name as Silent Hill. We sincerely apologize for this.— BLUE BOX Game Studios (@BBGameStudios) June 15, 2021
But for the internet there was no turning back...
People started investigating..
Subreddits and Discord-Servers were born...
And oh boy , did people find some crazy "coincidences".
The obvious being that Hasan Kahraman and Hideo Kojima are sharing the same initials.
Another user found out that Hideo translates to Kahraman. (japanese to turkish)
Additionally there was almost no info about Bluebox Game Studios anywhere to be found...
and everything that people could dig up, either played into this whole conspiracy or made you question if you are a crazy person...
Sometimes even both.
On June 21st 2021,
The day that the "Abandoned App" was set to release, Bluebox Game Studios announced that the App had been delayed to June 25th.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/06/weird_ps5_game_abandoned_delays_trailer_app_to_friday
That same day, "Bluebox Game Studios" posted a video of their Game-Director Hasan Kahraman, to once again try to convince people that he is a real game developer and that is not in any way connected to Hideo Kojima.
“Yeah, I’m not really associated with Hideo Kojima. I’m not an actor. Not working on Silent Hill,” he says, flatly debunking the ongoing rumors. “I just wanted to show you guys my face and that I’m real.”
On June 22nd 2021,
Gaming Journalist Jason Schreier interviewed Hasan Kahraman.
"Kahraman said he had signed a contract with Sony but wouldn’t offer specifics. He also said the game was funded by investors but wouldn’t say who. “There is a reason for that, but I really can’t talk about it,” Kahraman said."
On June 24th 2021,
Nuare Studios a well known and respected outsourcing studio posted a video in which they confirm that BBGS is a real studio and also that they are working with them.
This incident of course raised even more questions.
How can a small Indie Team outsource their work to a big player like NUARE?
Who is funding Bluebox Game Studios?
https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2021/06/24/blue-box-nuare-studio/
On June 25th 2021,
The Abandoned App was delayed again.
https://twitter.com/BBGameStudios/status/1408424979172110336
"the app isn't quite there yet..." Explained Kahraman.
That same day, Kahraman revealed that "Abandoned" might also come to PC at a later date.
https://twitter.com/BBGameStudios/status/1406690349158998017
On July 27th 2021,
Bluebox Game Studios posted an image of a blurred character, wearing an Eyepatch ( also a common item in the Metal Gear Solid franchise).
with the caption.
"Are you ready? We are!"
On August 10th 2021,
The app was set to release on this day, but guess what?
Bluebox Game Studios delayed it on the last minute.
https://gamerant.com/abandoned-ps5-app-release-delayed/
On August 12th 2021,
news broke about past projects from Bluebox Game Studios that had similar technical issues.
On August 13th 2021,
Bluebox finally released an updated version of the PS5 app.
People were excited to finally see what this game is...
to their suprise the only content available on the App was a 5 second teaser that was previously shown on twitter.
The following days were quite intense...
people accused Hasan Kahraman of being a scammer....
(Allthough nobody had to pay for the app ..which is kinda dumb to be honest)
People started to lose hope in whatever they expected "Abandoned" to be...
be it "A HIDEO KOJIMA GAME" or just a great new horror game...
things went quiet for a while.
September 5th 2021,
"Abandoned was announced too soon. Also, we received a bigger audience than we initially had, so we had to polish the game even more. Even now, the game isn't ready for the public eye to see. We will release all media inside the Realtime Experience app and web for actual gameplay reveals and cinematic trailers,"
Bluebox issued this statement a long with an "FAQ" on their website.
https://blueboxgamestudios.com/#faq
On October 14th 2021,
Bluebox finally gave an update on the game on twitter.
They announced the "Playable Prologue".. or "P.P."...
"We will be releasing an update for the app shortly with new trailers and content. The Prologue is a full game and not a demo or trailer. Hope this gave you same clearity."
On October 17th 2021,
"Blue Box Game Studios reports physical death threats over ‘Abandoned’"
(Man ... I was pissed too but some really took it waaaaaaaaaaay to far.)
On October 20th 2021,
Hideo Kojima posted an image of the "Manus" VR are gloves with the caption:
Capture experiment.
...
On November 18th 2021,
Kojima posted a set of photos with the caption:
We are experimenting all the time with the staff within Kojima Productions.
On that very same day Hasan Kahraman tweeted:
Meet our motion capture stunts performer xd A (cute) teddy bear behind the screens, a human character in-game. (Disclaimer: no teddy bears were harmed)
hm...
On November 22nd 2021,
Hideo Kojima announced that he is forming a second studio to work on other media such as Music, Movies and TV-Series.
https://www.ign.com/articles/kojima-productions-opens-division-movies-tv-music
On November 24th 2021,
Kojima started teasing his next project on twitter
During the next few weeks we got several teases from Hideo Kojima but would stand out from the others.
The header image was also changed during that time...( I couldn't find the exact date of this happening)
For now you can see a picture of a snowy field with footprints (an imagery often used in Silent Hill 2 , so much so that Konami even made merchandise with the footprints.)
Silent Hill Merch from the konami store
On December 29th 2021,
Hideo Kojima stated that his team is working on two games at the moment.
https://gamerant.com/hideo-kojima-new-games/
It was discovered recently that there is countdown hidden on the Bluebox Game Studios website...ending on February 1st.
-------------------------------------------
That is all for now I guess!
I probably missed some stuff, but I think I covered the most important events.
If I missed anything Major , please let me know.
Cheers
Rip
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