Metal Gear, Silent Hill and Castlevania could return in 2022, allegedly

Konami is said to be bringing back some of its most classic and dormant series, including Metal gear and silent Hill, with several new titles set to be revealed in 2022.

The struggling Japanese publisher and developer has been largely inactive since pivoting to focus on mobile games in 2015. But as VGC reported, it would have several large-scale projects currently in production. Anonymous sources told the news site that a “reimagining” of Castlevania is made in-house in Japan with the help of “local external studios”, while external developers are working on new entries for Metal gear and Quiet hill.

Could this be true?

Beyond Konami itself, the Metal gear the project would be a remake of 2004 Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, run by Singaporean company Virtuos. The Auxiliary Studio recently worked on the Switch ports of Dark Souls Remastered and The outer worlds, and it also offered development support in various ways on successful series such as Unexplored, Call of Duty, and Battlefield. (Last November, rumors started to circulate that it was actually Bluepoint Games that was working on a 1998 remake. Solid metal gear, which continued until the studio confirmed this week that their next project will be an original game.)

Remastered editions of the classic Solid metal gear titles for modern consoles are also planned, VGC was told.

As for silent Hill, outlet sources said several games were in the works outside, one of them being outsourced to a “top-tier Japanese developer.” If this is true, it apparently checks the smoke from fires started by several industry leaks over the past year, claiming Konami’s beloved horror series is set to return.

The publisher also revealed in a June statement that it has entered into a strategic partnership with The way developer Bloober Team (a game with a soundtrack co-written by silent Hill veteran Akira Yamaoka), although to date no game has been officially announced by this alliance. The series hasn’t had a main entry since 2012 Silent Hill Downpour, which had been contracted out to a western studio and was poorly received.

A tarnished legacy

Recent whispers about silent Hill were a particular sticking point for fans. Konami’s perceived ambivalence for its own games – with a track record of inactivity and lackluster exits stretching back years – has left its reputation in shambles. And really, the company’s trajectory over the past six years has arguably been one of the craziest misfortunes in modern video game history.

The inflection point occurred in 2015. Following a bitter falling out with Metal gear Creator Hideo Kojima, Konami removed director name from upcoming film Metal Gear Solid V and canceled its in development Silent hills the comeback. After several failed attempts by Western studios, Kojima’s name has given weight to the notion of rescue silent Hill of his limbo state – and players were particularly taken after TP, a terrifying proof of concept teaser he developed for PS4, released as a free download on PlayStation Network in August 2014.

Shortly after, he confirmed Silent hills was canceled in April 2015, Konami also removed TP of the PSN. The demo has since acquired an almost mythical status as a piece of video game history, confined to PS4 consoles with already on their hard drives. The move caused console prices to skyrocket with the demo installed on ebay and even led enthusiasts to resurrect it in other forms.

In May, more bad news emerged that Konami was halting major game development in favor of mobile titles as part of a corporate restructuring, information the publisher himself later rebuffed in an open letter. at Ars Technica.

The following year saw some kind of resuscitation for Metal gear, but not in a form requested by anyone. Instead, he released a trailer with lavish, remade scenes from Metal Gear Solid 3—which was converted back into a pachinko slot machine. (Pachinko and health clubs are among the most diverse business elements of the company’s multi-faceted activities overseas.)

A month later, the announcement of a “sequel” to the critically acclaimed film by Kojima MGSV, except that it was multiplayer-focused, set in a non-canonical alternate dimensional timeline, and featured hand-to-hand combat against hordes of crystalline zombies. Fans were not happy with these developments.

Over the summer, the publisher announced that it skip E3 2021, citing a number of projects in development that weren’t ready to be shown. If VGC’s report turns out to be correct, Konami plans to reveal its list of rumors at major industry events next year, barring complications from COVID.

If any of those rumbles pay off, it could mark the start of a huge comeback for Konami. It’s entirely possible that someone out there has been watching closely the recent surge of Capcom, which has seen one hit after another since its reboot. resident Evil in 2017 with Resident Evil 7, a game that apparently changed the fortunes of the company at the time – and hopes to learn from it.