Konami's in charge

HellDescent.com has posted an interesting story about the modern state of Silent Hill gaming and Konami's direction of the series. According to Kenzie Lemar, an artist who worked with developer Double Helix on Silent Hill: Homecoming, Konami is definitely the driving the evolution of the series.

You have only to cruise the forums of the interwebs to see how core fans have criticized Silent Hill's changes since Team Silent was disbanded. They have been displeased with their beloved franchise, and put the blame on the developers who have shepherded Silent Hill onto the next generation of consoles.

IMHO, I think this is a misguided view by a minority of core fans (great fans who have supported Silent Hill) of how Konami is evolving the series, and not necessarily fair to the new blood. I also believe that it is likely a small minority who complain loudly. Konami knows that Silent Hill is a flagship series--after all it is the only (? or one of the few) Konami IP's that was made into a major motion picture. When you look at the history of Team Silent, from an early point, its eventual dissolution was there as Keiichirō Toyama left after the first game to work for Sony on Siren.

There are lots of other factors too. Developers and publishers of current gen consoles are still trying to balance HD budgets with non-HD processes and schedules. That's why Konami pushed SH to the PSP, added a PS2 port, and published on the Wii--its very, very expensive to make and publish games this generation. Also, with lower install base this gen, it's been challenging at best, for publishers to make a profit on titles that are not smash hits.

It's to Konami's credit that they recognized opportunities in outsourcing to US and EU development studios--Western studios bring unique perspectives, different processes, and likely cost savings. It's a move that Capcom mirrored in recent years, and was a hot topic amongst the Japanese game development community at TGS this year.

Love it or hate it, outsourcing is here to stay. Enjoy the different experiences possible with each new iteration of Silent Hill. You might not like everything Konami publishes, but at least they are trying hard to give us something unique each with each new title.