Remember when Konami decided they no longer needed one of their top designers, so they turned him into a contract worker and swallowed his studio whole? Then, when going full Borg wasn’t enough, Konami proved they have absolutely no idea what they’re doing anymore when they murdered the incredibly promising Silent Hills before going of their way to do the same to P.T..
We may have just witnessed a fire sale, because all that’s left of Konami is the charred husk of the once respected publisher and a lot of angry fans who would really like to know what’s going on.
There was a whole lot of bad in those sentences. Sorry about that. I don’t mean to bum you out — in fact, I’d like to do the opposite. I’ve gathered a handful of articles from around the Internet that might offer a different perspective on this situation, and maybe some closure. A few even helped me vent some of my lingering frustration, so if you could use some of that, I highly recommend scrolling down to the very bottom where you’ll find an excellent video from the mad genius, Jim Sterling.
“Why Silent Hill Mattered”, by Leigh Alexander
Leigh Alexander is a games journalist you should all be following, if you don’t already. In this trip down memory lane, which may even be the name of a street in that foggy town, Alexander gives us a guided tour of the series’ storied past that shows us exactly how wonderful Silent Hill once was.
I dig deep into my memory: The soft-crunching rhythm of men’s bodies jogging languidly through fog. The fog sometimes gently drifted aside to reveal off-putting silhouettes on crumbling street corners, holding so still, as only the way things that are about to move will hold themselves. Mellow, mournful music. The awkwardly-typeset, ash-colored information: I G O T A H E A L T H D R I N K.
It almost reads like poetry, doesn’t it? You can find the rest of it over here.
“Konami Sucks”, by Patrick Klepek
Kotaku’s Patrick Klepek gets right to the point in his piece, fittingly titled “Konami Sucks”. Klepek brings up an important point here, when he brings up how awful the video games industry is at handling the preservation of all these video games. Now that P.T. has a finite number of copies, Konami should be working to preserve it, not eradicate it.
“The games industry is not good at preserving its own history. We have to rely on people in the darker corners of the Internet fighting the good fight, even as the industry tears them down,” Klepek writes. “It’s fine that Konami doesn’t want to make Silent Hills. Games are cancelled all the time, and we’re forced to wonder “what if?” over beers. It happens. There’s no way to know whether Silent Hills would have been any good. P.T. did exist, though, and it was absolutely horrifying.”
Fans Petition Konami to Revive Silent Hills
I’ve written about this fan petition to try and get Konami to revive Silent Hills before. It might not accomplish anything, but signing it can’t hurt. This is one of the few weapons we have for change, aside from angry letters, boycotts and hilarious assaults on social media. Even if it’s not effective, it’s still nice to see so many fans coming together to try to do something.
“Konami is Konami”, by Jim Sterling
Jim Sterling has a bit of fun at Konami’s expense, not just because of Silent Hills, but because he and the publisher have been engaging in PR and social media fisticuffs for a long time now. Recent events only gave him a reason to give them a few good kicks to the ribcage. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him tear them down in this Jimquisition video, and I think you will too.
Jon and I wrote about Silent Hills, too. You can find Jon’s list of reasons why cancelling the game was a terrible idea over here, then you can chase it with my frustrated rant.
