Gamescom 2014 will go down as one of the defining moments in video game history. It was at this event that was assumed to be a small indie team called 7780s Studios took to the Sony stage and announced a new horror game; releasing a trailer and a playable demo for their little pet project. Something definitely didn’t add up. The demo was called P.T, and it was immediately clear that there was more to it then met the eye.
Taking control of a man doomed to wander an ever slightly changing looping hallway haunted by a ghost named Lisa, the player’s job was to solve a series of obtuse puzzles to break the loop and escape. People grouped together on Twitch to solve these tricky puzzles as a community, and gamers were very surprised by what we learned. It turns out that P.T. was a demo for a reboot of the beloved Silent Hill franchise, named Silent Hills, and 7780s Studios was a cover name for a team consisting of revered game designer Hideo Kojima, beloved cult director Guillermo Del Toro and Walking Dead leading man Norman Reedus. Everything seemed perfect.
After that, after a tumultuous year, which saw Konami burn bridges and squander their decades of good will, Silent Hills was cancelled in April 2015, with P.T. being pulled from the Playstation Network days later. Later in the year, after the release of Metal Gear Solid V, Hideo Kojima would leave Konami (the place he called home for near three decades) he decided to leave Konami and set up his own studio, announcing his first independent project would be in collaboration with Sony.
However, the rumour mill starting turning once again when Kojima tweeted an photo of a meeting with Reedus, stating that he was giving him an update on the state of his company. Kojima then co-hosted a panel with Del Toro at the DICE Summit a week later, discussing their creative visions. Could Kojima’s first project be a revival of Silent Hills under a different name, with Sony backing it with their money? Only time will tell.
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