After Playing or Seen PT... What Can be Expected of Silent Hills?

If you have been keeping up with the newest blog entries, you know that 3 days after the Survival Horror Awakens, but Still No Silent Hill article, Sony and Kojima had this brilliant idea of using a viral technique to tell us that there is going to be a new Silent Hill game which is now called Silent Hills. That piece of news has generated a lot of hype between both the long time fans and curious gamers who haven't seen much about this horror franchise, which is very cool thing considering the lack of love that the series had been suffering since Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Now knowing that PT was a sort of a viral teaser for the new Silent Hill game, we got to see first hand how powerful the fox engine is. The setting of the PT game is on a small segment of a house and it looks astonishingly real also supported by a really good assortment of sound effects that were successful in giving the creeps to everybody who experienced it. Overall, the teaser was excellent, but all the questions are now directed at the final product. How will Silent Hills be?

Any fan of the franchise itches at the thought of exploring the entire city.

Will it be an exclusive?

The possibilities of this title becoming a PS4 definitive exclusive are very slim, even though it was first showcased on PS4. The reasons why a definite exclusivity deal seems unlikely is that the franchise is trying to get back on its feet again and in order to do so it needs to be available to as many gamers as possible. On the other hand we have stuff like the game's profile on IGN where it shows that Sony is one of the publishers along with Konami. So if this publisher thing is true, it means that some sort of exclusivity is on the way even if it is only for a limited time. Sony recently said that they were not interested in "buying" exclusives, but if they are indeed one of the publishers we may be seen something like the thing Nintendo did with Bayonetta 2. Now been things as they are right now, the safest bet on this aspect of the game is to think of it as a timed exclusive.

The power of the fox engine at work.

Graphics vs Content

A great deal of speculation has been going off regarding how this game will be, but nobody has a clear idea. There have been a lot of fan theories that try to predict how the story of the game will go, but have you ever asked yourself how will the game be displayed to you? The Fox engine did a hell of a job, grafically showcasing the interiors of a section of the house, but will it hold up to an entire town? Will this force developers to divide the game in chunks in order to maintain the visual quality? To have at least some kind of answer to these questions be aware that the final product will most likely be different than the teaser. If we take it from a business perspective we can tell that if they feature Norman Reedus in the game, it wouldn't be for him to stay hidden under a first person point of view for 90% of the game as that would be kind of a dumb thing to do if they want him to be part of the marketing efforts for the game.

So this points to the game been in a third person perspective with some first person parts that will play like PT and will serve to give the player some insights about the story of the game. Hopefully the beautiful graphic style presented in PT will not be affected.

My experience of the game was so unique, I didn't even saw this guy.

The "s" in Hills

It is a fact that people that played the PT game are still looking for a definite and logical way to finish it. Up until now there are still a lot of discussions about how to beat the teaser and it seems like everybody is having a different experience. This, coupled with the "s" in "Hills", give the impression that the "everybody has his own experience" thing will also be true on the final product. Maybe this time we wont be taking a personality test before the game starts, but have other things that will lead us to all sorts of variations that will make each experience to be unique. This can be done by changing the game through the player's decisions and/or making it a free roaming experience by featuring multiple paths and mixing those paths with various choices for puzzle solving and character interactions that serve as forks in the road (explicit and implicit) up to a point that they may even change the main objective of the game somehow. All this of course will lead to the classic multiple ending feature that many Silent Hill games have had in the past.

This Silent Hill 2 scene is still an ongoing topic within fans.

Philosophy and Psychology

Almost all of the Silent Hill games have deep psychological and philosophical roots. There is a lot of stuff to analyze and fans have been making theories ever since the first game was released and this is especially true with the second game in the series which seems to be the richest on this sort of thing. Now with Silent Hills we may have a lot of new material to twist our minds into. Evidence of this comes in the discussions that have started on the net, with fans already making all sorts of theories based on the PT game. Some fans have tried to predict the setting and time in which the game will be set on, the appearance of classic antagonists like Pyramid Head and they have also been talking about their ideas about how the story will be. The curious thing about it is that the fan theory mill is getting bigger and bigger and we don't even have the game yet. If you want to read some of these theories check out this Reddit thread and see for yourself.

Been grabbed by surprise and finding this thing face to face, its no wonder there were so many screaming videos.

Wrapping it up

Silent Hills doesn't look like a reboot to the series, but some sort of side story focused on bringing an unique experience to everybody. The powers of the cursed town called Silent Hill can move to pretty much everywhere as evidenced on Silent Hill 4, so we can have an terrifying and macabre experience in any place near it as long as the main character has some sort of relation to its messed up history. It all looks good up to this point and expectations are high, so let's just wait and see what Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro have in store for us.

Survival Horror Reawakens and Still No New Silent Hill.

For the delight of fans of this genre, the survival horror hiatus is no more. With games like Outlast, The Evil Within, Alien Isolation and upcoming ones like The Order 1886 and Resident Evil Remake Remastered, it seems like we are going to see a lot of horror coming to this generation. Most of the big hitters are going to have an appearance including a new Fatal Frame game for the Wii U (if it makes it to our shores), but up until now there is one that has been missing in action and hasn't shown any concrete signs of it making a come back. It was the Resident Evil direct competition back in the day and a very good survival horror game, Silent Hill.

The HD version of Silent Hill 2 had some classic cutscenes removed because they were seen as "inappropriate".

The reasons why this game franchise hasn't made an appearance on this generation can only be a matter of speculation right now and even though we are not completely in the dark about it, details about the future of the franchise have been a little thin. One of them is that Hideo Kojima has set his eyes on the franchise since 2012 because he thought and commented about how good it would look on the Fox Engine. These comments were only based on Kojima's experience watching the latest Silent Hill movie at the time, so it only lifts a small speck of hope at best. Even in the best case scenario, if Kojima decided to work on the franchise it would be something that would be releasing at 2016 or something because he has been too busy finishing and promoting Metal Gear Solid V. It is most likely that even if he has any real interest on Silent Hill, the ideas must still be on paper and not even funded yet.

Robbie the rabbit is a staple of the series and he became really popular after Silent Hill 3.

Another piece of information is related to Climax, which are the developers that made Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. The studio CEO said in 2013 that they are working on 3 new titles, 2 for the PS4 and one for the Xbox One and even boasted about how they were the most "next-gen" experienced studio to ever work with that type of technology. The thing is that rumors state that they are working on a Prince of Persia type of game and a new horror IP. This leaves a 1 out of 3 possibility of having a new Silent Hill game coming from them and if we take into account that one of the rumored games in development is a NEW horror IP, the possibilities get even smaller. Besides, their take on the Silent Hill series was more of a strange reboot in which you did not fought any enemies at all and that wasn't so hot with fans of the franchise.

Did you know that Silent Hill 4 was not going to be a Silent Hill game at all?

Some of the oldest Silent Hill fans say that the best thing to do with the franchise is to go ahead and reunite the original Team Silent. We have to admit that at the time when they were still together, they were the survival horror "dream team" with a group entirely composed of horror-oriented developers and artists. Now back to the reality, we have to accept that reuniting this once powerful team is too difficult right now as many of their former members are scattered all around and even if some of them are still working for Konami, important members of the team like Keishiro Toyama (Silent Hill director), Akira Yamaoka (Sound director for the series) and Takayoshi Sato (creator of the first 2 Silent Hill games) are too difficult to reach because they are either working for another company or on personal projects, so making a Team Silent reunion has become something a little too complicated to do right now.

Silent Hill Downpour was an good game, it's only real fault was having bad battle controls.

Wrapping it up

A new Silent Hill game is not an impossible thing as the fans want it and it has been 4 years since we last played a real one and no, the HD Collection and Book of Memories doesn't count. Up until now all we have are rumors and wishful thinking, but a new entry on the franchise can happen as long as this horror trend keeps up. The best thing we can do is to vote with out wallets and support the genre so that the higher ups at Konami see that they can give the franchise another chance and decide to give it a go and make a new full scale Silent Hill project. Once again as I have said before, it is up to us.

Update (8/13/2014): Its funny how 3 days after this blog entry, we get the surprise of Silent Hills through the P.T teaser demo. I'm like super hyped about it as the demo itself was pretty neat.

Sources:
GamesRadar: Hideo Kojima Expresses Interest in Silent Hill (2012).
VideoGamer: Silent Hill Shattered Memories Dev working on 2 ps4 games and 1 Xbox One game (2013).
GiantBomb: Team Silent

  

Video game releases that never come. Why does this happen?

Right now, If you can think about one or more video games that you have been waiting for since like forever, then you are one of the many that ask themselves why do sometimes some game franchises just vanish, leaving only good memories and a pile of game release rumors.

At first it may seem to be just coincidental business decisions, because like every business, video games must evolve, but if one looks a little further, one can see that almost every game company has a game (or several) that they just abandoned, even when it was a big hit money printing machine.There are many possible reasons that we can think about and we are going to see some of them along with some theoretical solutions. You will be amazed on how different it could be and how perplexing it becomes as the opposite happens.

Note: This article is just a theoretical analysis based on common sense and it does not claim to be a video game business guru. This is more just like one of those thoughtful conversations that you could have with your friends when talking about games over some slices of pizza on a gaming afternoon.

Some companies easily become the Ted Dibiase of the video game industry.

All about the Benjamins

This one is the most obvious reasons so let's get it out of the way. Some games are left in development hell because there are no financial means or financial will "to do it correctly". This happens a lot with games that were pretty ambitious at their time and were only possible because they were cheaper to do back then. By ambitious it doesn't necessarily mean giant worlds or branching game play with a lot of options. It could just mean a game with a style of game play that is complex to do (even on a linear game standard) and takes time and resources in order for it to be interesting which seems to be a problem due to rising development costs.

Solution:

They need to stop thinking about those games in terms of the latest graphics, sound and effects and just make them prettier than their original versions without making a crater on their bank account. Make it look nice enough, but focus on building upon the game play that the game already had. So in summary, the solution is to re-route resources to the core elements of the game itself instead of the visuals and technical aspects. The fans will not mind if the game doesn't look like the a graphic powerhouse, they just want to continue the story, enjoy its game play and just have fun. Gamers fell in love with their creation, meaning story, characters and game play and not its polygons and resolution. An example of this is the new Legend of Zelda for the Wii U that was shown on this year's E3. The game looks gorgeous even on a platform that has a lot less power than the other rival consoles.

A quote that seems kind of hard to accept nowadays.

Change for the sake of change

This one came like a wave that drowned many of the previous fan favorite game franchises, specially between the DC/PS2/GC/Xbox and the PS3/Xbox360/Wii generations. Be it because of a change of president, CEO, owner, etc, some companies dumped great gaming franchises just because they did not fit into their new philosophy even if the game was almost guaranteed to be successful up to that point. Others killed franchises by changing them so much that they became rejected, thus turning them into franchises that did not sold copies anymore. The worst thing is that at the end of the road the blame is put on game itself and not the decisions made by the game company. It's like an army blaming a soldier for a blunder caused by something they ordered him to do. Change is good, but not every time. Sometimes it is best to not try to fix what is not broken.

Solution:

For them to explore the notion of NOT abandoning money making franchises just because they have an urge to make things different for the fun of it. The best thing to do is to assign small teams to make those games while keeping moderate production values and changing formats if needed (digital is cheaper). Make a study of where the fans of that game are lingering and aim for that, followed by clever marketing strategies, viral advertising and a good dose of screen time that could attract new crowds, specially on the web. Take for instance what Square Enix did with Bravely Default. The game was released on handheld where development is cheaper, but carried everything that their JRPG games are known for and became a great success that even changed the philosophy that the company had at the moment.

Moral of the story: Do not play with your fan's feelings.

Games held as trump cards

Some companies give the impression that they know they have a wanted game on their hands, but they sit on it because they expect to use it at a later time if needed. So they hold the game for a long time, limiting themselves to make small announcement and comments just to keep the fans happy and speculating. They let some "leaks" to go public and spawn some articles on the gaming media or maybe make a reference to the game on some random interview, all done with the purpose of keeping the game alive on stasis, sort of like Han Solo frozen in carbonite.

Solution

They need to realize that freezing or delaying a game is something that will only work for 3-5 years tops. Games that go longer than that away from the spot light start to fade, as gamers take refuge in other games and little by little lose interest in the original idea, up to the point when they can begin to see it as something "passe" and just plain ignore it when it finally comes out. This is the case of franchises like Duke Nukem and even the notorious Daikatana in the 90's. If they need to take a temporary break from a franchise, that is understandable, but coming out of the blue with a 10 year old concept and expecting gamers to go crazy over it would be like leaving a lover and saying "I will be back later" then come back 10 years after and expect that person to be single and waiting for you, it just doesn't work that way. So the bottom line is... If history has told us that something doesn't work then why do it?

War never changes, not even on the office.

A civil war of games 

This is one very theoretical reason, but quite possible if one takes into account how humans think. It is in human nature to protect our own things and with video game new I.P's (Intellectual Property) it isn't any different. New developers and rising talents will want to bring their ideas to the table and will most likely repel anything that means them living under the shadow of a successful franchise from the past. One example is the rumored problems that Hideo Kojima was having with the team assembled to create a new Zone of the Enders game as the group was not following his vision and this ended with Kojima losing interest in the project which is now dead. So things been like this mean that newer designers and project managers will try to influence the company into making new things, their things instead of building upon the already established. It is a natural instinct, but it is not always productive.

Solution

To be mindful of each of their employees on the creative/development department and see what are their influences and vision as game developers. Be sure to put the right people in the right projects. Do some assessments to get to know the members of their company and see how they react to different development options. Also get their strongest developers to feel comfortable with what they are doing and see how they influence those around them. Then when they finally have a profile of each of the members of their development team, they can assign teams more efficiently and have an all around better working environment which will make games to turn out better and be developed faster and with greater passion. Otherwise it would be a random affair, like putting plumbers to work as clothing designers.

Some of our childhood heroes are not there as we knew them anymore.

The heroes of the past been long gone

This one is all about the passing of time. As years come and go, some of the great developer teams that made some of our favorite games are little by little disbanding or changing. Other times, big-time developers retire or go into making their own developing studios for various reasons (some of them included in the things previously mentioned). Like Team Silent (original Silent Hill development team) disbanding,  Hironobu Sakaguchi (original Final Fantasy creator) forming his own team with Mistwalker, Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil creator) going solo with The Evil Within, Keiji Inafune (Mega Man's creator) leaving Capcom and even Koji Igarashi (Castlevania creator) leaving Konami in order to make games he wants to make without creative constraints and limitations.

Solution

The masterminds behind games can easily move to greener pastures, but sadly the franchises can't as they are property of the company itself, so what it would be good thing to do is for the game companies to publish the game, but lease the development of that game to its previous creator so that the game keeps its potential and both parties profit from the deal. It is something that will be barely noticed by gamers and all the popularity and loyal following the game has will be left unchanged, making it a win-win situation for everybody. In the case that the artist is not available any more, the best course of action would be to study his creation and come up with a game that feels fresh, but is true to its roots.

Wrapping things up

If you have a game that you crave as a fan, but never see it released, that game could pretty much be part of any of the situations previously explained. The industry is a hard place and the battle between business and creativity still rages on. As gamers, the least we can do is use our greatest weapon which is the net and show the gaming companies that these games are wanted and still mean business. If it worked for the Mass Effect 3 ending and made Microsoft backpedal from of their notorious policies, it could also work to see your favorite game franchises brought back to life.

Become the cavalry!

Don't just reminisce about the games, become active!

Here are some links to communities/petitions you can join/sign to help in the effort of bringing some lost games back to life:

100,000 Strong for Bringing Back Mega Man Legends 3

Operation: Akumajo (Castlevania Demon War)

Final Fantasy VII Remake Request

The Last Guardian Petition: Make Toriko fly

Shenmue 3 500K: All Fans Needed

Various miscelaneus video game petitions