Silent Hill Artist Claims Konami Disbanded Team Silent

[Tom Goldman]

Silent Hill Artist Claims Konami Disbanded Team Silent

An artist that worked on Silent Hill says that Konami disbanded Team Silent to bring the series in a new direction.

After Konami released Silent Hill 4: The Room [http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Hill-4-Room-Playstation-2/dp/B0001Y7404/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295369529&sr=8-1], the group known as Team Silent that had worked on every Silent Hill game dissolved. This was somewhat of a mystery, with rumors both saying that the team was disbanded by Konami and that its members had left on their own to work on new projects. Recently uncovered comments by an artist that worked on Silent Hill appear to confirm that Konami took an axe to Team Silent, wanting something new from the series.

Game industry veteran Kenzie LaMar, who worked as an artist on deviantArt page [http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Hill-Homecoming-Playstation-3/dp/B00149MEVY] that Konami is to blame for the change in direction of the Silent Hill series. The comments are from 2010, but apparently remained undiscovered until now.

"Just remember and never forget that if you don't like the direction of where Silent Hill went the only people you can blame are Konami themselves," he wrote. "They are the ones who canned team Silent and wanted someone else to make the games."

Due to declining faith in Team Silent, LaMar says that Konami wanted a change for Silent Hill, so it disbanded the group and handed the franchise off to another development team. This resulted in the creation of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories [http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Hill-Origins-Sony-PSP/dp/B000HKIPGE/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1295370344&sr=1-1' target=].

LaMar continues: "To further prove what I am saying, they made an arcade style Silent Hill shoot'em'up gun game!! How Silent Hill is that?!"

Whether or not LaMar was actually privy to the decisions of Konami isn't confirmed, but he certainly delivers this information with a forceful tone. If Konami did disband Team Silent, I wonder if that was really the best choice to make, rather than allowing a seasoned survival horror team to continue perfecting its craft. The latest entry in the Silent Hill franchise, Silent Hill: Downpour [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106785-Silent-Hill-Downpour-Poisons-Water-With-Horror], is at least looking pretty good.

Source: Destructoid [http://helldescent.com/2011/01/17/team-silent-disbanded-by-konami-homecoming-artist-says-so/]

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[Quiet Stranger]

Go fuck yourself Konami!!! That is all!!

 

[binvjoh]

Wouldn't it have been a better idea to bring in some new people to the original team, retaining the classic element while adding some fresh and new perspectives?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Silent Hill certainly went into a new direction alright. Straight to Hell!

And not the Hell we all know and love.

 

[FinalDream]

By new direction they must mean the same as before, but worse.

 

[Tim Latshaw]

Team Silent was disbanded?? Why did we never hear about this?!

 

[Cain_Zeros]

Well, the reply to his comment seemed to imply that he'd been "asked to leave" Double Helix, so it could be a case of "disgruntled employee talks shit about former employer" too.

 

[James Raynor]

Why call it silent hill if you remove the whole team that made silent hill to begin with?

 

[Captain Booyah]

And as we all know, that's just about the worst thing they could have done. Whilst I agree that Team Silent couldn't go on with the same formula as the first three games -- they're considered the best, but you don't want another five exactly the same, do you? -- axing the entire team was completely unnecessary. Why not tell them they wanted them to mix things up a bit? Or hire some newbies for fresh opinions? Jeez: on the one hand, Silent Hill as a franchise suffered, but on the other hand, I'm kind of glad that Konami shot themselves in the foot. Only serves them right.

SHAME ON YOU, KONAMI. SHAAAAME.

 

[JamesBr]

Unfortunately, this is the way business goes. Nothing lasts forever and after the lukewarm reception of The Room, I can understand why Konami wanted to go in a different direction with a fresh perspective. That being said, WTF Konami? Sure The Room was a sub-par Silent Hill game, but it was still a decent game in it's own right. Origins and Homecoming were just kinda embarrassing in comparison. Team Silent wanted to try something new with The Room. Sure it tanked, but at least it was something different instead of just rehashing elements from Silent Hill's glory days (Silent Hill 2 that is).

Whatever, the franchise isn't dead yet, I still hold out hope that we will get a good Silent Hill game in the future. Downpour looks interesting, and although it's changing some of the core elements of the series, it might still be a great game if properly executed. If I wanted to run around a foggy town facing twisted interpretation of the protagonists personal demons, I'd play Silent Hill 2. It would be nice to see a game that stands on it's own merit while being part of a universe that I have come to adore.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Konami's had a completely trash record this generation. I'm honestly not surprised at all given the choices they made. I mean, look at 6 Days in Fallujah.

 

[lazinesslord]

I thought Shattered Memories was pretty good. (certainly not as good as it could've been)
But, yeah, Silent Hill certainly hasn't been itself lately.

 

[solidstatemind]

I think, after the third, I was getting a little bored of the formula that Team Silent was using. I am forced to wonder if this is just somebody raging, because he didn't really seem to present any reasons why Team Silent should've been retained, other than they came up with the idea originally. If they pitched Konami a SH5 that was just more of the same, and then Konami canned them because they didn't like the pitch, then it's their own damn fault.

Remember, we don't know necessarily that a Team Silent post-SH4 would've been better than what we got (not that that would've been that hard). It's efforts could've been bad, too. We'll never know. Personally, I welcomed the change, but as I said above, I got pretty bored during SH3, given that I felt like I was essentially replaying the same story from a different angle, and the Room, while somewhat refreshing, felt very choppy and unpolished.

Regardless, it's all in the past. Here's hoping that the new one will recapture what made SH2 so great. With the fog-monster mentioned above, sounds like they may be on the right track.

 

[Shakaar9267]

R.I.P. Team Silent.

 

[PrototypeC]

Oh, the bear guy! I was pretty excited when I found him on DA. I don't know if what he's saying is true, but I'm no friend to Konami's recent decisions, let alone their treatment of Team Silent from the beginning. They almost didn't take Silent Hill 1 to the end of development, because they were scared of taking a risk!

They gave a fair deadline for SH2, but then gave them an aggressively short time to finish the third game (repeating textures, same location as SH2 when Heather finally gets there, etc.) and even though they STILL knocked it outta the park, enough of the members of the original Team Silent had had enough and moved on.

I want to be on the team for the next Silent Hill game. I want to be in the same room as people who make these decisions, people who actually know what they're doing and RESPECT and revere Team Silent, but still having their own creative ideas.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Oops. Silent Hill Downpour looks promising indeed, but yeah, those previous games...not so much. I wonder if Konami is banging its head against the wall yet.

 

[Ericb]

Unfortunately, this is the way business goes. Nothing lasts forever and after the lukewarm reception of The Room, I can understand why Konami wanted to go in a different direction with a fresh perspective.

Silent Hill: The Room wasn't meant to be a SH game to begin with. It was Konami's decision to shoehorn Sh's brand on top of it more than halfway through the project.

And when it turned out bad, they blamed it on the team instead of themselves. That's how bad business goes.

Whatever, the franchise isn't dead yet, I still hold out hope that we will get a good Silent Hill game in the future.

Oh, yes it is.

The creative team behind its inspired edge is gone. Silent Hill have become just a empty brand now.