Don't know who NeoBards are? Uhh, me neither, but...

[NanayaShiki]

So while all my initial focus was on my shock of who was writing this game, it's worth also taking a lot at who the actual development team working on it are. There isn't much to say here though because they are shockingly new. They formed in 2017, are based out of Taiwan, and as far as I can tell their biggest projects so far have been as support on the recent batch of Resident Evil games. They worked on the Origins Collection and the next-gen updates for RE7, RE2R, and RE3R.

Perhaps their biggest project to date though was the multiplayer game attached to RE3R, Resistance. They seem to be the primary developers attached to both that project and the upcoming RE:Verse.

I'll admit, Resistance had a lot of problems and I'm not expecting RE:Verse to blow me away either. But the game is having an early access period over the next couple of days and I got it for free with RE Village so I'm going to be checking it out and taking note of how well it plays. I don't think the genre is right for RE but that's not relevant here.

The good news is that working on all these Resident Evil projects shows technical skill, none of the ports have been bad, so if RE:Verse functions properly I'll take that as a win. It's a little worrying that Konami still hands the series off to relatively unknown and untested developers but I'm willing to give anyone a try.

[jdnation]

Looks like Neobards does want to branch out, so this is their first shot at handling a full fledged game. I'm optimistic for them!

[Alexius Corvinus]

Just leaving this here.

https://twitter.com/QQBert/status/1583130394719059968

[Chris Sunderland]

Just leaving this here.

https://twitter.com/QQBert/status/1583130394719059968

Sponge Bob voice:

Two years later..

[NanayaShiki]

These things do take time. I'd rather they not rush it, so I'm content to wait.
On the other hand, they could have also waited to announce it until after SH2.

[Chris Sunderland]

What's weird is I don't think the devs know when Konami is going to drop info. Back when the the new Transmission was announced Al Yang posted a tweet with the eyes emoji, implying we should look out. Bloober also posted the same thing on Twitter. The transmission comes out it's just SH2R related. Bloober was also caught off guard when Konami dropped the combat trailer, which was old footage that they didn't want out there apparently. Also it's weird to announce 3 games and not talk about them for two years. I don't get their strategy honestly. I thought SH2R was a fall '23 game for sure. With Townfall and F being slated for this year and later. We got RE4R footage for the first time same day and it came out 5 months later. So IDK what's going on with the marketing or what it's trying to accomplish.

[leftshoe18]

I think the reason they announced so much at once was to show that they were serious about this revival. It used to not be uncommon for games to be announced years before they release. I wouldn't be surprised if one of Townfall or f is an early 2025 release with the other coming Fall 2025 similar to Short Message and SH2R both releasing this year.

[Chris Sunderland]

I imagine that if they really are working on a in house Silent Hill then these games will be smaller experiences akin to a AA indie horror game. I don't think filling in the series with quality remakes and side stories expanding the lore is bad at all. It works for Capcom and if done correctly, respecting the series and not farming it out to the cheapest developer who's willing to work on it, I could see them making Silent Hill a competitor to Resi.
I just wish we knew what type of games these are, it would make figuring out their strategy easier I guess.

[Jonipoon]

I thought Silent Hill f stood out among Townfall and the other titles as being treated as a main-series title?

[Chris Sunderland]

I thought Silent Hill f stood out among Townfall and the other titles as being treated as a main-series title?

Who's to say?

[The Adversary]

>I thought Silent Hill f stood out among Townfall and the other titles as being treated as a main-series title?<
Only SILENT HILL f was referred to as "the next mainline Silent Hill game," though not in the Transmission. Must have been an interview.

[Droo]

Various gaming site articles about it referred to it as a mainline title.

[leftshoe18]

I wonder if that was just an assumption by the gaming sites or if that's part of some official information given to them from Konami.

[Droo]

For so many to say it I suspect it came from Konami.

[jdnation]

It's not that unusual for companies to announce several projects all at once to generate maximum hype, then only focus on things closer to release afterwards.

I'd have thought Konami might've also had more to say about what they already had out.

Ascension came and went without further comment, which suggests to me that results have been underwhelming.

The Short Message saw initial buzz, was mixed in terms of reception, and doesn't have the staying power of intrigue that P.T. did, where it was still being played, streamed and discussed for a long time before the Kojima/Konami fallout was even a thing.

I'm thinking Sony will do a 30 min dedicated State of Play for SH2 in October in which we'll see Eddie, dark SH streets + new location gameplay, and some P-Head boss fighting.

Then I feel we'll get new info on Townfall, f and the movie later this year after SH2 is out, probably December, primarily because of the movie marketing which I'm guessing may be aiming for a release in early 2025.

Konami is also rumored to be doing something else in-house.

And I'm certain that new SH port collections are being done somewhere, especially of the Homecoming and Downpour games for easy money. Heck, Metal Gear Solid just had it's 3rd collection - they put out a PSOne/2 reprinting prior to MGS4, put out an HD ports of 2,3 and Peace Walker for PS4/Xbone/Vita prior to MGSV, and a new vol 1 just came out for PS4/5/Series/Switch.

The previous SH collection was so bad, they are likely trying their best to not have that happen again, although, even the MGS and Zone of the Enders collections have had issues too, including the new MGS vol 1, which they promised to patch.

Anyway, I do believe f is positioned as the next proper 3rd person mainline sequel. Townfall could likely be a 1st person narrative side story that's smaller in scope.

[Wigeke]

I'm thinking Sony will do a 30 min dedicated State of Play for SH2 in October in which we'll see Eddie, dark SH streets + new location gameplay, and some P-Head boss fighting.

Don't they just do dedicated events for first party games or exclusive heavy hitters? I don't think SH2 remake qualifies as a heavy hitter.

[Chris Sunderland]

I'm thinking Sony will do a 30 min dedicated State of Play for SH2 in October in which we'll see Eddie, dark SH streets + new location gameplay, and some P-Head boss fighting.

Don't they just do dedicated events for first party games or exclusive heavy hitters? I don't think SH2 remake qualifies as a heavy hitter.

I would disagree. Silent Hill if anything has become more popular since it's "hibernation" after the demise of PT/SHs and SH2 being a staple of gaming essayist on YouTube. Whether that translates into sales who knows, but Sony did money that a timed exclusive on it.

[jdnation]

Sony doesn't have any other exclusive offerings for the fall other than SH2 and Astrobot, then their marketing deal for Call of Duty. Re Fantazio is another big game that'll do well for them, but Xbox has an exclusive marketing deal for it.

So of the two, SH2 is their big 3rd party Exclusive, and they could emphasize it like they did for Hogwart's Legacy who they had only a marketing deal with in a dedicated State of Play, or dedicate a lengthy segment of one to it at the end like they did for Deathloop, unless Konami really want to handle another transmission themselves, but State of Plays get more views and attention, so I'm guessing everyone would want to leverage that before release and keep the focus on that.