Konami and developer Bloober Team (The Medium, Layers of Fear, Blair Witch) have announced that they’ve entered into a partnership that many fans suspect will eventually result in Bloober Team developing a new Silent Hill game.
Granted, the press release doesn’t mention Silent Hill by name, but representatives from Konami and Bloober Team have strongly suggested that this agreement will eventually result in Bloober Team developing games related to notable Konami franchises. Piotr Babieno, president of Bloober Team, says that “Konami has decided to strategically cooperate with the Bloober Team,” and Konami president Hideki Hayakawa stated that he looks” forward to combining Bloober Team’s and our respective characteristics and strengths to create high-quality contents.” The press release also bizarrely includes the phrase “know-how,” but that’s a matter for another day.
For many, though, the biggest takeaway from this agreement isn’t directly related to Silent Hill, Bloober Team, or Konami, and has more to do with what this agreement means for the Blue Box/Hideo Kojima conspiracy theories that have recently taken over certain corners of the internet.
If you haven’t been following this story, I highly recommend reading this explainer that should help bring you up to speed. Failing that, you just need to know that fans recently found a surprising number of reasons to buy into the idea that Blue Box Game Studios’ upcoming indie title, Abandoned, is actually a secret Silent Hill-related project being secretly developed by none other than Hideo Kojima. While Blue Box founder Hasan Kahraman tried to shut down those conspiracy theories, that strangely only made the problem worse.
With this recent announcement, though, most conspiracy theorists slowly seem to be accepting that Abandoned is not a secret Silent Hill game and that Bloober Team is probably going to be the studio that finally delivers a modern entry into the beloved horror franchise. Mind you, that doesn’t mean everyone is taking this well. Some members of the “BlueBoxConspiracy” subreddit seem to be having an especially hard time getting over that revelation.
Not everyone is ready to give up on the conspiracy theory, though. In fact, one of the most popular recent theories suggests that there are at least two Silent Hill games in development and that only one of them is being handled by Bloober Team. While it’s true that there are reliable reports out there that suggest that another studio is working on a Silent Hill-related project, most of those reports describe the second studio as a prominent Japanese developer. If true, that would rule out Blue Box Game Studios’ involvement, unless you really buy into the more elaborate cover-up elements of that story.
As for Bloober Team’s involvement…well, fans seem to have mixed feelings about that. It stands to reason that those who don’t like the studio’s previous efforts won’t be especially excited about the prospect of another Bloober Team game, but there seems to be a general level of skepticism out there at the moment regarding the state and future of the Silent Hill franchise and whether any studio has the ability to resurrect one of horror gaming’s most acclaimed series.
That’s pretty much where we’re at with this story. There are reportedly at least two Silent Hill games in active development, and at least one of them will likely be developed by Bloober Team. What happens next remains to be seen, but it’s honestly hard not to root for any developer that can bring Silent Hill back to life after all these years, and maybe even do the series justice in the process.