TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Everything we know - and don't know, I guess - about all those Silent Hill rumours.

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The Adversary
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by The Adversary »

If I remember correctly, I got the aglaophotis but never finished the whole Kaufmann quest. I know I went into Annie's Bar and saved him, just never figured out what to do in Norman's Motel.

I kinda don't think the developers expected players to explore a lot in the first game until their second playthrough. That's how it was for me, at least. I didn't use a walkthrough or anything (until the goddamn Zodiac puzzle).

That's something I would to see more of in the remake, though—more in-town puzzles like in the first game, not just me scouring every single dead-end and alleyway looking for some obscure reference and irritating my friends as I play.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Jonipoon »

There of course remains the question if a remake of Silent Hill should or should not be more streamlined in order to appeal to today's masses. So for example, you could make entering Annie's Bar obligatory by shutting off certain roads, but still put a time limit on saving Kauffmann. That way the good endings would not be too missable for first time players, and would more or less depend on your moral choices.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Wigeke »

Droo wrote: 19 Jan 2023 I did find it odd that they locked the Good endings behind randomly acquiring a liquid you have no reason to collect and expecting to stumble on explorable buildings you have no reason to suspect can be entered when almost the entire rest of the town buildings are locked.
The way I always read the whole Aglaophotis plot point is that Toyama was toying around with the idea of Harry being stuck in a time loop. So to get the best ending you (and to an extension he) would need to use knowledge acquired from previous iterations where you saw Kaufmann use it.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by The Adversary »

In the official Silent Hill novelization, Harry sees the red in Cybil's eyes and equates that with the mysterious red liquid. That, of course, is a pretty poor explanation, but you gotta work with what you got. I mean, by that logic, Harry could have splashed it on any of the nurses or doctors he sees and would have gotten the same result. I don't recall if I bothered trying to use the aglaophotis on anything in particular when I first played.

>the question if a remake of Silent Hill should or should not be more streamlined in order to appeal to today's masses.<
This may be a stupid question, but are casual gamers picking up Silent Hill for the first time really going to try and get every ending? I mean, not people like us, just people who are, like, "Oh I always wanted to play this annnnnd I'm done."
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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^Exactly why they might want to make it more accessible. If the casual gamer is just going to play it 1 time, developers nowadays would want to make sure that players get the best possible one-time experience; that includes streamlining the story so that big events are not easily missed. I could think of many other examples such as the important conversation Harry has with Cybil after he saves her at the amusement park. So in order to unlock the bad endings you'd have to play intentionally bad instead of the other way around.

I'm not saying it's the right choice, but it's certainly a possibility.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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The Adversary wrote: 19 Jan 2023 I think what jdnation means is that, while there are more levels in SILENT HILL, some of them are repeated. The sewers are pretty much identical, and Nowhere is nearly a replica of Alchemilla Hospital, so recreating it in its entirely wouldn't be quite as tedious as possibly SILENT HILL 2.

At least that was my interpretation.
Yes! Thank you! As a technical effort, remaking SH1 is easier.

Even if we did a 1:1 count in terms of 'levels/locations', SH2's environments are more diverse than SH1 in terms of room variety, objects, and design.

In one sense it would make a remake easier if it was just a 1:1 touch-up.

But even if they wanted to go whole hog on a very good redesign to keep up in terms of quality with SH2 Remake, artistically they can be more creative precisely due to the limitations of the original PSOne product.

For example, here is the SH1 Church:

Image

Here is the SH3 Church:
Image

The PS2 games have more detail by virtue of being on a new generation of consoles.

If one were remaking the PS2 games, fans would be more critical of changes and additions. What works? What doesn't? What changes the look and feel of things too much?

But with SH1, only the most essential things need to remain, which are the main objects, and the general lighting/atmosphere. Details can be added to the benches, altar, Crucifix and even to the walls etc. without substantially changing the scene itself.

Of course changes can also substantially alter SH1 too much, but there is more leeway to work with such that a more detailed environment actually improves upon the original. SH1 is more "bare" contrasted to its sequels. This is likely far more due to technical limitations rather than art direction, but the original did the best it could under the circumstances, and in many ways, the limitations helped it artistically.

----------------

As for the alternate routes/hidden content, I think it's alright that some things should be a bit more obscure and missable. People, even casuals, like that about games. Makes replaying stuff more interesting too. Most people streaming it will have people in chat guiding them so that they get the most out of it and see everything they possible can. As long as the base standard ending is satisfying enough, people don't mind heading back for another bout to unlock a true ending.

A modern way of making things more convenient is developing the title in such a way so that there is an open-roam mode, so that areas with the hidden content are not permanently cut off. Some games use warp points, but I think SH is better served with level design that is clever and wraps around so that you can come and go from different places (FROM Software apparently does this well with the Souls games from what I've heard and seen).

Clues just need to be pointed to in notes/conversation enough so that people make mental notes and are encouraged or intrigued enough to explore/try something. If there are points of no return, then these should be highlighted and a save-file in the right place made possible for re-exploration, maybe even pointed out after the credits role so that a player can begin from a save point that allows one to re-explore before proceeding to the finale again.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by tbonesays »

Wow I got to play this game. No more spoilers please.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by The Adversary »

Wait. Wut.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Alexius Corvinus »

I think he just means he’s playing Silent Hill 1? 🤷‍♂️
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by jdnation »

Maybe there is a typo, and he meant "I've got", hence requesting no spoilers, regarding SH1's secrets/endings?
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by tbonesays »

jdnation wrote: 24 Jan 2023 Maybe there is a typo, and he meant "I've got", hence requesting no spoilers, regarding SH1's secrets/endings?
well, common tongue grammar.

I started SH1 back when I posted the pictures of my 'new' PS2 but didn't get very far.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by The Adversary »

Ah, okay. I was under the impression you'd already played it like the rest of us normal people.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by jdnation »

This might explain why Konami is going big on a SH revitalization.

Konami Set To Have Much Worse Financial Year Than Anticipated
https://www.dualshockers.com/konami-wor ... cial-year/
Konami has released a revised financial forecast for the financial year ending March 2023 to its shareholders. The document revealed that Konami expects to have an operating profit of just over half of what was originally forecasted.

Konami predicted in May 2022 that the company would have an operating profit of 76,500 billion yen ($600 million~) but has revised its forecast to say the company expects to now make 42,500 billion yen ($330 million~) in operating profit for the fiscal year. This is a 44.4% reduction in forecasted operating profit.

Konami did not provide robust reasoning for the reduction, simply saying it is due to “factors including revision of the profit plan for some titles in the Digital Entertainment business.”

The Japanese entertainment company has provided very sparse offerings this year. Konami’s biggest release this year was eFootball 2023, the rebranded Pro Evolution Soccer. The latest instalment of Konami’s football simulation game hasn’t experienced significant success. When compared to the game’s biggest competitor FIFA 23, it’s not much of a contest. If you compare the two games on their active player bases, FIFA has ten times more players than eFootball on Steam.
Consolidated Financial Results for the Nine Months Ended December 31, 2022 (Prepared in Accordance with IFRS)
https://img.konami.com/ir/en/ir-data/st ... szr754.pdf
For the nine months ended December 31, 2022, economic activity is showing signs of recovery due to relaxed behavioral restrictions although resurgence of COVID-19 persists. Meanwhile, the situation still remains uncertain due to issues such as prolonged Ukraine conflict, rapid fluctuations in exchange rate caused by tight monetary policies around the world and surge in resource prices.

Amidst these circumstances, in terms of the business results of Konami Group for the nine months ended December 31, 2022, revenues have increased due to successive launch of titles of core contents and the depreciation of Japanese yen. On the other hand, in addition to amortization of product costs upon those title releases and promotion costs incurred, rising energy costs have impacted on our profit performance.

...

In the entertainment market, future development of game content is expected through the functional enhancement of various devices, including mobile devices and video game consoles, and the spread of next generation communication systems. The ways in which content is enjoyed is becoming increasingly diversified, such as increased attention and growing fan bases for the eSports space, which treat video games as sports competitions, and gameplay videos. Furthermore, there is growing recognition for the metaverse, which is a virtual space on the internet. In particular, the high affinity between the metaverse and video games is attracting strong attention.

Amidst these circumstances, as a new initiative in this business, we have distributed Yu-Gi-Oh! RUSH DUEL: Dawn of the Battle Royale!! 2 for the Nintendo SwitchTM. In addition, in order to revive the SILENT HILL series, we have announced that we will remake the past title SILENT HILL 2 and produce the completely new games SILENT HILL: Townfall and SILENT HILL f. Furthermore, we have publicized information about the streaming content SILENT HILL: Ascension, in which viewers influence the characters and create the story together.

...

Due to increase in amortization of product costs and promotion costs by launching the titles of core contents successively from 2022 onwards, and increase in research and development expenses for new development titles, business profit in this segment for the nine months ended December 31, 2022 decreased


Previous year saw growth, thanks in part to lockdowns pushing people to seek out digital entertainment.

Fiscal 2022 Konami Group Interim Report
https://img.konami.com/ir/en/ir-data/gr ... df/all.pdf
Due to the long-term impact of COVID-19 in the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, there have been further changes to people’s lifestyles and values. Even under these circumstances, the digital entertainment business has remained strong, which has enabled the Konami Group to provide enjoyment through content and services, our strengths, to many customers around the world. Also, as socio-economic activities gradually return to normal in Japan and overseas, some of our businesses have begun to see the outcome of efforts made since the previous fiscal year to improve financial results. As such, we saw profits in all categories, starting with business profit, which experienced a record high, greatly surpassing the previous record.

The interim dividend will be ¥36.50 per share, an increase of ¥14.00 compared with the previous fiscal year. Going forward, we will strive to improve our growth and financial performance to further increase dividends.

In the world of the new normal, the needs for entertainment and sports have steadily increased, and we are confident that these will continue to be appealing markets rich in growth opportunities.

The entertainment field is highly promising and will continue to be developed by the evolution of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), fifth/sixth generation mobile communications (5G/6G), cloud technology, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs); the accelerated pace of digital transformation; the growth of esports; and other advancements. In the sports market, there is significant margin for promoting digital transformation in line with changes to lifestyles, and we began to develop new businesses, such as a wide-ranging service for offering lessons that can be attended online. Additionally, we will promote reforms, including a shift to an asset-light business model (excluding directly managed facilities)
So perhaps Konami was more bullish on its expectations, but a mix of people's lives going back to normal and other rising costs/supply chain issues etc. have had a impact.

From 2023 report:
In the amusement market, as the “new normal” era of life with COVID-19 becomes normalized, due to changes in people’s behavior and awareness resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the range of needs is expanding, such as demand for ways to play arcade games at home in addition to amusement facilities.

Amidst these circumstances, for video games targeted at amusement facilities, we began operations of CHASE CHASE JOKERS, a three-on-three team tag game in which players team up with their friends to aim for victory, as well as GITADORA FUZZ-UP, the latest title of the GITADORA music game series, which comes with the new time-based unlimited play mode “Premium Free Mode.” There continues to be strong performance by “KONAMI AMUSEMENT GAME STATION,” which allows users to enjoy arcade games on computers and smartphones at any time. In this third quarter, we began offering the medal game FORTUNE TRINITY Seirei no Shihousai as part of the service, along with QuizKnock STADIUM, which comes with friend matches. As part of the professional league “BEMANI PRO LEAGUE” that combines music and eSports, we held “BEMANI PRO LEAGUE -SEASON 2- beatmania IIDX.” The finals with spectators, which were streamed live online and live DJs, created a great deal of excitement. Furthermore, SOUND VOLTEX series were selected as the new competition title from this year, and the qualifying league matches were hotly contested.

For the nine months ended December 31, 2022, revenues and business profit in this segment decreased due to difference in timing of product launch
In translation: Konami created several smartphone games, but it seems that poor timing (releasing after lockdowns ended) of many digital titles failed to bring in the expected revenue.

Slot machines still did well.
In the gaming market, the operation in casino facilities in North America and Australia returned to its pre-COVID-19 level and the situation brought back in the revitalized markets. Although other markets in some countries and regions are still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the market as a whole is on the road to recovery

...

Despite the impact of soaring component costs caused by global supply chain disruptions, profitability has improved due to various cost reduction initiatives.
We can also see the rationale behind multiplayer GAAS Silent Hill games:
With networked entertainment offerings rapidly becoming mainstream, now more than ever, many people have an increasing number of opportunities to enjoy playing games on any device. Amidst this situation, in addition to gameplay based on the features of the device, we are promoting cross-platform development so that users can enjoy content beyond the boundaries of various devices. Additionally, as the ways of enjoying content continue to diversify, we will promote global efforts so that users can enjoy a wide range of game genres in various situations such as fan events and eSports competitions.

...

As an ongoing initiative, we are working assiduously to produce the SILENT HILL series, which has been hotly anticipated ever since we announced the decision to produce both a remake and entirely new titles.
Previous records
https://www.konami.com/ir/en/ir-data/statements.html
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Jonipoon »

^Interesting spin on the story, but most of these Silent Hill-related projects seem to have been in development since before Konami's revised financial forecast. However, that's not to say that this downturn in operating profit won't further motivate them to really deliver on the revivial of Silent Hill.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Mike Enslin »

When you do things like delay Silent Hill 2 Remake from Q4 2022 to Q? 2023, you're going to have predicted revenue drops. Almost everything Konami have in the works is either rather late (Silent Hill The Short Message was meant to release in Q4 2021) or shows signs of missing initial deadlines (the Metal Gear remaster collection was very likely intended to release in 2022 so they could deal with the licenses expiring more smoothly). Not just that, but the first game they planned on revealing was not Silent Hill, but the new Castlevania they're making. That is... obviously behind schedule.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by jdnation »

Jonipoon wrote: 04 Feb 2023 ^Interesting spin on the story, but most of these Silent Hill-related projects seem to have been in development since before Konami's revised financial forecast. However, that's not to say that this downturn in operating profit won't further motivate them to really deliver on the revivial of Silent Hill.
I was being hyperbolic, but basically it may explain why they are promising more to come alongside lots of other potential console franchise revival.

Most of the mention of SH is in the form of future expectations in the recent report. What is given in the current report is a close to HALF reduction in their forecast operating profit - that is - after accounting for operating expenses. (Operating Profit = Gross Profit - Operating Expenses - Depreciation - Amortization).

That's a major miss of a 44% reduction, essentially telling your investors that you can only deliver a little over half of what you initially promised. So this is a pretty big deal for Konami's board.

With the bad news, came paddings of promising news, and various Silent Hill projects were mentioned. They note that "Due to increase in amortization (write-offs) of product costs and promotion costs by launching the titles of core contents successively from 2022 onwards, and increase in research and development expenses for new development titles, business profit in this segment for the nine months ended December 31, 2022 decreased."

So they are saying that expenses for developing the new titles also affected the operating profit. This is odd as one would think these costs would've already been factored in for the previous years, which may suggest that development costs went up over the period according to the report. But as to what the actual contribution was, we do not know... As again, this is a 44% reduction of what you promised investors. My reading of it is that it is a way to smooth things over with ambiguity. They do not specify that Silent Hill titles were the biggest operating expense, everything is lumped together.

Konami would obviously try to smooth the language over in the report, and the only other thing known is “factors including revision of the profit plan for some titles in the Digital Entertainment business.” Meaning that whatever they are doing with what it available now, from eFootball to other mobile titles hasn't been delivering. As the SH titles have not been released, they cannot account for revenue. If they expected that SH would have been released this year and was delayed, there is no mention of delays, as they could've quickly shifted to saying that such revenues would've been expected next year to keep investors sated. But they didn't and we still don't have firm release dates for any of the recently announced SH games.

Digital saw a jump thanks to lockdowns, and Konami tried to capitalize on that, but admit that they didn't get around to releasing things on time during the period, hence, "For the nine months ended December 31, 2022, revenues and business profit in this segment decreased due to difference in timing of product launch." Some were for Amusement Arcade Machines, which people weren't going to. And some retro-fitted for at-home play and intended for online-streaming, which didn't take off.

2021 (2022 report - March '21 - March '22) was Konami's most profitable year, and its biggest driver was Yu-Gi-Oh.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/konam ... 0-6503436/

This made them bullish for the next year where further growth was expected.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/yu-gi-oh- ... to-usd626m

But between March '22-and the current time, this has not turned out to be as good a year during 2022, not unprofitable, but cutting promised projections for investors means a lot of frowny faces.

The unpredictability of the market under these conditions was a point of contention, so it seems that there is a pivot to a more conventional and predictable market with home consoles, something Konami had stepped back from for it's Mobile-first approach back in 2015.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenorsi ... lly-smart/

So to put it in context - the pivot to the mobile and other amusement strategy was the idea of low costs and high returns. Essentially cheaper-to-develop games, but with lots of recurring revenue. But despite the lower investment, the high returns enjoyed and expected earlier have not been delivering as of late.

The interesting question is, when exactly was Konami deciding to pivot?

This thread itself for rumors began in 2020. Christophe Gans also made first mention of a SH movie sequel in 2020.

Silent Hill 2 Remake was in development since 2019
https://gamerant.com/silent-hill-2-rema ... ince-2019/

Silent Hill Townfall - Konami was shopping around in 2018. NoCode teased the project in 2021. Additional hiring began in 2022.
https://silenthill.fandom.com/wiki/Sile ... :_Townfall

Silent Hill f - Unknown, developer Neobards began in 2017 and hit the ground running with work on the Resident Evil series up until 2022. If we had to guess a date, it would be around 2018 when Konami was shopping, and then it would probably involve when Ryukishi07 started writing for it, which could likely be around the release of his previous game Looper in 2021, or as early as 2020. It is also possible, that like Loopers, development had begun on f as a prototype prior to Ryukishi07's involvement, for which he'd be brought on later to weave a story from their concepts as some game development usually brings in a narrative later after gameplay elements and various scenarios and concepts have been set down. But we don't yet know how Neobards is approaching this. But usually there is some preliminary gameplay scenarios and ideas firmly put down before writers are brought on.
https://neobards.com/aboutus/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loopers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukishi07

Silent Hill Ascension - Unknown. But I would not be surprised if this was the most recent project in terms of development history.

I'm assuming that SH2 Remake was the first project intended to kick off the revitalization period, so we're looking at Konami considering at least 2 games around 2018-2019. Which would be after Kojima's departure and the end of Silent Hills in 2015 and the period of a "mobile-first" strategy began.

Using SH2 as a guidepost, that period lasted from 2015 - 2019, so only 4 years. But Konami had a good year in the 2019 report for the period from March 2018.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/konami-en ... fit-growth

2019 is early, so perhaps during that period Konami was genuinely looking to make some kind of console revival attempt besides its gains in the mobile space, through purely outsourcing and licensing their IP and sharing the risk with other developers, essentially looking for ways to make console AAA and AA projects with cost-reductions around 2018.

Given that we know this is the case, it seems unlikely that SH production costs were any significant culprit to Konami missing their profit forecast, as again a 44% reduction means a significant increase in development costs that they never saw coming. Even if lockdown conditions and remote working was to blame, they would've factored that in the previous year, and would've stated this was the case as an excuse in the report. The most they can say related to that is missed timing of certain releases that might've capitalized on that period.

For whatever reason, it seems that after having several good years, Konami has had a major miss with this recent quarter.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Lifetolifeless »

Mike Enslin wrote: 04 Feb 2023 When you do things like delay Silent Hill 2 Remake from Q4 2022 to Q? 2023, you're going to have predicted revenue drops. Almost everything Konami have in the works is either rather late (Silent Hill The Short Message was meant to release in Q4 2021) or shows signs of missing initial deadlines (the Metal Gear remaster collection was very likely intended to release in 2022 so they could deal with the licenses expiring more smoothly). Not just that, but the first game they planned on revealing was not Silent Hill, but the new Castlevania they're making. That is... obviously behind schedule.
Whoa, hang on. What have I missed?


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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by NanayaShiki »

Lifetolifeless wrote: 05 Feb 2023 Whoa, hang on. What have I missed?
Nothing. There is no official confirmation for anything they've said, I'm guessing they are talking about rumors.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Mike Enslin »

Lifetolifeless wrote: 05 Feb 2023
Mike Enslin wrote: 04 Feb 2023 When you do things like delay Silent Hill 2 Remake from Q4 2022 to Q? 2023, you're going to have predicted revenue drops. Almost everything Konami have in the works is either rather late (Silent Hill The Short Message was meant to release in Q4 2021) or shows signs of missing initial deadlines (the Metal Gear remaster collection was very likely intended to release in 2022 so they could deal with the licenses expiring more smoothly). Not just that, but the first game they planned on revealing was not Silent Hill, but the new Castlevania they're making. That is... obviously behind schedule.
Whoa, hang on. What have I missed?
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... lent-hill/
The first of these titles will be a new Castlevania game, which sources described as a “reimagining” of the series currently in development internally at Konami in Japan, with support from local external studios.
If you look at Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, that was made by the Metal Gear team, aka Production Department 8, aka Kojima Productions. So it's very likely that after Metal Gear Survive underperformed, the team was put onto Castlevania.

The Silent Hill showcase was meant to be held at E3 2021. We have the leaked Konami/Sony slides with the original release dates. The Short Message was meant to release in October 2021, and it hasn't even been officially announced yet, although it is very close to release. This is why why Akira talked about the "Summer" reveal of the game he was working on. He was talking about Konami's original plans to reveal SH2R in 2021. But Konami got cold feet and pushed the SH showcase back by about 16 months. In the leaked slides, SH2R has a Q4 2022 release date. Silent Hill Townfall (originally SH Short Stories #1) was 2023. Everything got pushed back and reshuffled.

Also, "Silent Hill 5" was scheduled for 2024.

Regarding Konami's lineup, I think that Konami have delayed a number of games they originally intended to release in this window. SH2 was originally Q4 2022. Suikoden 1/2 HD was originally March 2023, but there's some indication it's been delayed. They removed the internal Steam API release date a month or two ago.

It's also possible they've completely written off stuff like the console version of Edens Zero. The mobile version released, but the console RPG is AWOL for the past 2 years basically.

So they're putting a decent amount of money into an array of projects (although they're not huge budget ones), and they keep pushing back release dates. If you don't ship games, you don't make money from them. The decision to delay SH2R likely means its original ~15 million dollar budget has increased, too. (Sony are paying half, but...)
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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The problem is, when the decision was made back in 2021 to delay things, this would've been factored in to the 2022 & 2023 Reports. So when Konami was making their promised projections for how much they'd make in 2022, this would've been known beforehand. They've made a significant cut to the quarter of their most recent 2023 report. If the SH delays were behind this, Konami would've specifically noted that the reason for the downturn in revenue was due to delaying the release of hotly anticipated SH titles and emphasized that investors should expect those gains they initially promised to turn up in the following year.

Either way, given the decision to delay was made early on with no firm decision on when to announce/release, they could not guarantee revenue from those titles to investors in the subsequent years as they are put 'on hold.' Given the titles weren't announced yet, the only way they could mention them to investors in reports is vaguely about certain key console titles in development, as to explicitly state anything about SH in the report would obviously catch the attention of the press prior to announcement, so those details would only be known internally to specific people behind closed doors.

The recent 2023 report is, however, now talking up the eventual release of the announced SH titles.

My guess is that the downturn in revenue is due to trends of the failure of many Live-Service games that are having their plugs pulled. Notably one title from Konami.

Live Services Are Dying By The Dozen As Genre Buckles From Unsustainable Oversaturation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHohazQl7Cc

Konami's Online Murder Mystery Game Being Removed From Sale Just Ten Months After Launch
https://www.ign.com/articles/konamis-on ... ter-launch

So it's not just a Konami thing, but an industry-wide thing. It's just that Konami had a lot of their eggs in that basket lately.

GAAS/Live-Service titles are not paying off due to a combination of global recession, players being turned off by poorly created titles and business models and broken promises and buggy launches, and the fact that certain Top GAAS titles are already firmly established and fans prefer to just stick to those brands. The Games-as-a-service gold rush is ending. And even those games that are decent and make money are seeing declining revenues.

This means the larger casual market is going to hibernate, which means the only reliable customer base are the enthusiast hardcore gaming audience. And that too, it's a red ocean to compete with the other well established brands out there. The more linear single-player market may grant them an opening. Especially if console makers like Sony and Microsoft are willing to invest in exclusives and GamePass/PS+ deals.

A big reason that Konami was likely dipping back into the SH well around 2018 was most likely because Sony was looking for deals ahead of the PS5 launch. If Konami could get SH made between themselves, Sony and a third party contractor, then it meets their initial 2015 strategy of reducing the cost/risk for game creation with higher returns. Not to mention, outside of the game, there are other merchandising/licensing opportunities that would be solely at Konami's discretion.

It was also speculated that given Sony seems to have exclusivity deals with Konami for SH, that the recent Microsoft acquisition of Activision/Blizzard was what also put a lid on announcements, as Sony has been attempting to throw a spanner into the acquisition deal by claiming it'd provide Microsoft with an overwhelming monopoly, and didn't want to provide ammo for Microsoft to turn around and point out that Sony has it's own exclusivity deals in place with other publishers that prevents release on Xbox.

The reveal of the SH titles was pretty low key. I have a feeling that SH2R in particular was intended to be a major reveal during a Sony event, many rumored ones of which were pulled. So Konami was also affected by external factors related to Sony's decision to time or limit announcements.
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