By design, P.T. was purported to be a thriller. Announced at Gamescom 2014 throughout PlayStation’s press convention, the “playable teaser” from the not-actually-real developer 7780s Studio dropped on the PlayStation Store free of charge to little fanfare initially; a scary little oddity individuals downloaded out of curiosity. The twist nonetheless was that P.T. was one thing rather more than a brand new game from an unheard-of studio — it was the reveal of a brand-new Silent Hill game known as Silent Hills. And it was being made by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro and starred Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus. Over time, legendary horror manga writer Junji Ito can be hooked up to the undertaking.
And then the game was canceled, a sufferer of the very-public breakup between Kojima and his longtime employer, Konami. Barely an hour lengthy, it is since been known as one of many scariest games of all time, regardless of not a lot being identified about Silent Hills past the teaser, which Konami truly pulled from the PlayStation Store, making it inaccessible to anybody that didn’t already obtain it.
In a accident, the largest thriller surrounding P.T. was now not the key reveal it contained. The largest thriller turned what precisely Silent Hills was.
Details on Silent Hills, its growth, and cancellation have come out over the previous 5 years, however they have been fairly minimal and unfold out everywhere. While we sadly don’t have any new info to report on the game, we wished to look again at P.T. within the spirit of Halloween to look at what we all know in regards to the game and why it was canceled.
“A Game That Will Make You S— Your Pants”
In virtually each manner, P.T. was a ruse. The developer, the title – all of that was meant to trick gamers into pondering they have been taking part in a demo from a brand new unbiased studio attempting their hand at making a horror game slightly than the reveal of a brand new entry in one of many business’s hottest horror franchises. In actuality, the teaser was made utilizing Kojima Productions’ in-house Fox Engine, the identical engine used on Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. According to Kojima, the “high quality” was truly downgraded to create an phantasm of inexperience. “That was probably the most tough factor up to now … if we raised the bar that prime they’d assume an enormous studio was behind it,” Kojima told Polygon in 2014.
Kojima’s games — particularly by this level — are advanced. They’re typically systems-heavy and require a participant to be taught and function inside these techniques earlier than studying tips on how to bend and break its guidelines. P.T. was sort of like that, nevertheless it was deceptively easy on its floor. Loading into the teaser, gamers awoke on a concrete flooring going through a door. When they opened that door, they walked down a nondescript suburban hallway. At the tip of the hallway was one other door. Once opened, the participant discovered themselves staring at first of the hallway they’d simply walked by way of. And then it occurred once more. And once more. And once more. Until they have been in a position to determine the game’s tips.
Originally, Kojima said he thought it’d take gamers not less than per week to find the Silent Hills teaser ready on the finish of P.T. It took them a pair hours. But nonetheless, there have been quite a lot of puzzles and mysteries to beat within the game’s looping hallway, like requiring the participant poke out the eyeball of a personality in an image, decipher a message scribbled on a wall, or discover items of a torn-up {photograph} strewn all through the extent (probably the most devious of which was truly hidden within the pause menu). And even when the key was out, the notoriety of P.T. and Silent Hills nonetheless unfold. Talk of how scary the quick demo was additionally helped constructed curiosity. As gamers walked advert nauseum across the hallway, they have been stalked by a ghost named Lisa, who might often be heard transferring or crying. At one level, in the event you search for towards the ceiling, you will discover her watching you from the second-floor banister. Take too lengthy fixing the game’s puzzles or spend an excessive amount of time in a single place and Lisa will seem proper in entrance of your face, successfully killing the participant. Jump-scare compilations turned highly regarded for P.T.
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And then after all there was the teaser on the finish. Once the participant frees themselves from the hallway loop, the digital camera pans round to indicate who they’d been in command of, and that that character was performed by Norman Reedus. All the whereas, textual content flashes on display revealing the game was being made by Kojima and del Toro. It ends with a fade to the title “Silent Hills” whereas the theme track from the collection performs.
Once the cat was out of the bag, there was no stopping fan pleasure for P.T. At the time, and that is nonetheless true in the present day, Kojima’s title hooked up to something was an enormous deal. Especially in 2014, when The Phantom Pain was probably the most anticipated games of 2015. Del Toro and Reedus’ attachment amplified this pleasure, and the truth that the Silent Hill collection was getting such a star-studded group to work on a brand new entry pushed every little thing over the sting. Just over two weeks after releasing the demo, Konami announced it’d been downloaded multiple million instances.
Kojima has an virtually hyperbolic manner of speaking about his upcoming games (see: Strand Game), and Silent Hills was definitely no totally different. He spoke broadly about his ambitions with a survival horror game and talked about how he wished it to be the scariest game ever made. He wished to make a game that did not make gamers pee their pants, he stated that after speaking to del Toro he wished to make a game that made gamers s— their pants — even when that meant it was too scary for some gamers.
“So be it. We do not care,” Kojima told Polygon in 2014. “We are aiming for a game that may make you s— your pants. So please be sure you have a [change of clothes].” He even joked that the restricted version of Silent Hills would most likely include an additional pair of pants.
At the time, the reveal was stunning to the general public, however Kojima’s curiosity in making a brand new Silent Hill game and Konami’s curiosity in permitting him to do this have been just a few years outdated by the point P.T. was launched. Talking on the Eurogamer Expo in 2012, Kojima even stated it was one thing he’d talked about with the president of Konami.
“In the previous I’ve talked about Silent Hill in interviews, and on account of that the president of Konami rung me up and stated he’d like me to make the subsequent Silent Hill,” Kojima said.
“Honestly, I’m sort of a scaredy-cat in relation to horror motion pictures, so I’m not assured I can do it. At the identical time, there is a sure sort of horror that solely people who find themselves fearful of can create, so perhaps it is one thing I can do.
“That stated, I feel Silent Hill has a sure ambiance. I feel it has to proceed, and I’d love to assist it proceed, and if I may help by supervising or lending the know-how of the Fox Engine, then I’d like to take part in that respect.”
The game would present up another time on the 2014 Tokyo Game Show, this time with a proper trailer, and by the tip of the 12 months Silent Hills was exhibiting up on Most Anticipated games lists. P.T. even gained just a few awards, like Giant Bomb’s Best Horror Game of 2014 and Polygon’s 10th finest Game of the Year.
The success and anticipation could not cease the behind-the-scenes drama unfolding at Konami, although. And Silent Hills, no matter it was or wasn’t, was about to be nothing in any respect.
Creating A Panic
What was Silent Hills precisely? Realistically, most likely some ideas and grand concepts. Not to say it wasn’t actively being labored on in some capability, however on the time Kojima Productions was heads down on The Phantom Pain, which was launched in September 2015. There’s nothing to point that the game was very far in growth in any respect, and even playable past P.T. However, there have been apparently plenty of concepts.
“We had a terrific expertise and had nice story periods with a whole lot upon a whole lot of designs,” Del Toro, who has been probably the most vocal about Silent Hills post-cancellation, told Bloody Disgusting in 2015. “Some of the stuff that we have been designing for Silent Hills I’ve seen in games that got here after, like The Last of Us, which makes me assume we weren’t fallacious, we have been getting in the appropriate route.”
“We have been hoping to really create some type of panic with a number of the gadgets we have been speaking about and it’s actually a disgrace that it’s not occurring,” he added. “When you ask about how issues function, that makes no f—ing sense in any respect that that game shouldn’t be occurring.”
Silent Hills not occurring is the product of being caught up within the crossfire of Kojima and Konami’s break up. In March 2015, indicators that there was bother between the 2 events began popping up on the web. First, Konami eliminated Kojima’s title from then-upcoming Metal Gear Solid V’s field artwork and eliminated the Kojima Productions emblem from its web site. That identical month, Kojima confirmed that The Phantom Pain can be his final Metal Gear game — a collection he’d been making for Konami for greater than 30 years. In return, the writer said the collection would proceed.
In April 2015, whereas the office points surrounding Kojima and Konami unfolded, with some studies citing the writer was treating staff like “prisoners,” that it told Kojima he was “unfairly sullying the popularity of our firm,” and forcing Kojima Productions to “disband,” del Toro and Reedus each unofficially announced the cancellation of the Silent Hills undertaking. A couple of days later, ostensibly compelled to reply because the story unfold, Konami got here out and introduced the game was canceled — lower than a 12 months after its announcement. Two days later, it pulled P.T. from the PlayStation retailer, making it now not out there to anybody that did not have already got it downloaded. In September 2015, just a few weeks after it launched The Phantom Pain, rumors circulated that Konami was abandoning all AAA game growth other than its Pro Evolution Soccer collection. In December of the identical 12 months, after a drawn-out battle between the 2 events, retailers began reporting that Kojima had lastly left Konami.
Since then, quite a lot of what’s identified about what Silent Hills was or would have been has come from del Toro, who has spoken continuously in regards to the undertaking and his disappointment that it was canceled. He additionally revealed that Junji Ito, the acclaimed horror manga writer behind books resembling “Tomie,” “Uzumaki,” and “The Enigma of Amigara Fault,” was hooked up to the undertaking, although Ito has downplayed his personal involvement within the undertaking, saying it by no means even received far sufficient in growth that he truly drew something for Silent Hills.
“I got here to a gathering and Del Toro hugged me,” Ito said in 2019. “It seems Del Toro is an enormous gamer. Del Toro wished the game to be in a single location and maintain the horror within the participant’s face in that manner. … Once the Silent Hills assembly was over, we went to karaoke. I didn’t hear something after that. I heard that the plan received scrapped by way of exterior sources. I’ve seen Kojima and Del Toro since. I by no means began designing monsters. Nothing exists. There aren’t any roughs or sketches.”
Since the game’s cancellation, Del Toro has announced he is accomplished attempting to make games (Silent Hills is the second game he labored on that was canceled. In 2012 he was engaged on a game known as Insane with THQ and Volition). Konami tried with blended success to launch a brand new Metal Gear game, a survival game known as Metal Gear Survive. And Kojima has gone on to kind a brand new Kojima Productions, which launched its first game in 2019, Death Stranding, starring Norman Reedus and that includes Guillermo Del Toro. No new Silent Hill games have been introduced or launched since Silent Hills’ cancellation.
Mysterious
Due its mysterious nature and the fallout of Kojima and Konami, Silent Hills is destined to be a kind of games individuals discuss eternally, speculating on what might’ve been had issues gone in a different way. Since its cancellation, P.T. has impressed indie games like Allison Road and been remade in Dreams. And Kojima has expressed curiosity in making a brand new horror game, one he says he has “revolutionary” concepts for — that may make individuals crap their pants.
“P.T. ended as simply an experiment, however I want to make one other horror game sometime,” Kojima said in 2019. “Something that makes use of a revolutionary methodology to create terror, that doesn’t simply make you pee your pants, however crap them. I have already got concepts in thoughts.”
Kojima has stated little to nothing about what Silent Hills might need been after the game was canceled, however final 12 months he did discuss in regards to the legacy of P.T. and why it is so well-regarded. For him, P.T. was “particular,” however denies eager to make one thing prefer it ever once more.
“P.T. is particular. Human worry in the end stems from the unknown,” Kojima said. “P.T. was an experiment in producing an impact in response to that nature. So, the response was as anticipated – if something let’s imagine that it was a terrific success as a teaser. P.T. was a mysterious game, created by a mysterious studio, with no earlier announcement or info, so it used forbidden strategies to extend worry. It was a one-off factor, so we can’t reuse that methodology once more.”
What Silent Hills was going to be, we might by no means know. Those secrets and techniques have remained closed from the general public by the people who know for greater than 5 years now. And whereas it might not have been something concrete by the point it was shelved, just a few free concepts and grand visions on a pc or pocket book someplace, P.T. lives on as among the best horror experiences in games, a legacy that far exceeds its quick runtime.
