A wave of miscommunication appears to have hit Silent Hill 2 studio Bloober Team, as the team has taken to Twitter to rectify some inaccurate reports. While the developer's CEO Piotr Babieno was quoted (via Google Translate) as saying the remake is "technically ready", a new statement out of Bloober Team says this isn't actually the case. It also sought to squash rumours surrounding sales projections of the Silent Hill 2 remake.
The statement says: "It is also not true that we have announced that Silent Hill 2 is ready for release. Regardless of the development stage, all of our activities are focused on obtaining the highest quality for the finished product — the quality that fans of Silent Hill 2 deserve. We are aware that players are waiting for more information about Silent Hill 2. As soon as such information becomes available, we are sure that Konami, the publisher for the game, will share it with fans."
To be fair to Babieno, he did follow his original quote up by saying: "It doesn’t mean that the game is finished, but we are close." He then reflected the above statement by saying marketing of Silent Hill 2 is largely in Konami's hands. Given these recent comments, fans have been hoping for a release later this year. A launch date has never been attached to the PS5 remake since its announcement last year, so it's mostly still speculation for now.
"Thank you for your support and we will continue to do our best to provide high-quality games that give players the best emotional experience possible," Bloober Team concludes. Along with Silent Hill 2, new games in the series include Silent Hill: Townfall and Silent Hill F. Both seem to be further out than the PS5 console exclusive, though, so expect to see James Sunderland seeking out his dead wife before any new projects release.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 12
Good. I am in no rush to be disappointed. This studio sucks.
@GrimReaper what a lousy thing to say. I hope they deliver and wish them the best.
I’m cautiously hopeful; take your time, Bloobs. They were onto something with the Medium, hopefully this will be the project to push them over the edge into greatness.
Lot of expectations 😬
I’m not getting my hope up high so I’m not disappointed if it’s not good. I will be playing it when it comes out but keeping those expectations low. If it turns out to be great, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Take your time Bloober Team.
Perhaps they had to remake some of the work they've done on this remake.
What a load of bluster
@BeerIsAwesome These days, I don’t consider a game complete until a year or two after release. With a few exceptions, day one buyers are usually paying for an early access build.
I wish gamers — and publishers — would just leave developers alone until their work is actually done, instead of complaining that they don’t have a release date yet. A release date that might get changed a couple of times anyway, due to delays — delays that occur because management can’t seem to figure out how long it actually takes to make a modern video game.
Well it's bloober so whenever it is finished I still won't be interested
@Loamy I think you may be being a bit dismissive of other people’s opinions of Bloober Team.
From what I’ve seen online, there are a lot of people that liked Layers of Fear, with a few that didn’t, mostly because they felt it was a bit cliche. With The Medium, I think it was closer to 50/50, in terms of people that liked it vs. people that didn’t. And most people disliked the Blair Witch game that they made.
There are also some legitimate criticisms about how their games negatively portray people with mental health issues. It’s a problem with a lot of horror media throughout history, which is what Bloober Team is inspired by — but it doesn’t mean that isn’t a valid critique, given the changing attitudes toward mental health over the years. As someone with mental health issues myself, it’s a topic I really care about.
All of this is to say: people are worried about how Bloober Team are going to handle the Silent Hill 2 remake. I personally think they might do a good job, as long as they stick closely to the original story and mostly focus on updating the graphics and game mechanics. But I can understand other’s concerns, given their track record.
And, to be completely transparent, I’m basing all of my opinions on the online discourse surrounding their previous projects. I’ve never played one of their games myself, unless you count the 15 minutes I played of the first Layers of Fear before I noped out because I’m a wimpy baby that can’t handle first-person horror games. So take my hot takes with a grain of salt, and know that I also hope Bloober makes this game worthwhile to play, even though some Silent Hill diehards may not be happy with the end results.
Okay, thanks for clearing that up for me. The Medium has been on my wishlist since release on PlayStation, I’m just waiting for a significant price drop. I’ll play it someday and form my own opinions on it. Still, fingers crossed that Silent Hill 2 remake is good. I hope Konami has chosen the right studio for this, as well as the other Silent Hill projects in the works.
@tameshiyaku Same here, honestly don't get all the hate directed towards Bloober.
People just have too high expectations when it comes to video games sometimes...
@BeerIsAwesome Yeah, there are probably more games released in a decent state than the “few” exceptions I was referring to. I was mostly speaking about AAA or AA releases.
There are a few big publishers that pretty good with this. Nintendo usually waits until a game is done before releasing it — reportedly even sitting on complete games, like the Metroid Prime remaster, until they feel the time is right. (I am of course leaving Pokémon Company out, because yikes with Scarlet & Violet.) Sony is usually pretty good as well, except for their PC ports, and they sometimes leave out inessential features like photo mode or new game+ to get the games out the door, patching those in later. There might a couple more publishers that I’m not thinking about at the moment, but these are mostly the exceptions that prove the rule.
Indie devs are pretty much not in the conversation at all. Even if they have a bigger publisher behind them — like a Devolver Digital or Annapurna — they are usually new creating new IP with no audience expectations or pressure on them, as well as no huge budget or AAA competition, so they are usually left alone to release whenever. The other trend with Indies is to, y’know, actually release a game in early access on Steam, like Hades or Vampire Survivors did, to point out a couple of examples. They are honest about what state their game is in, listening to feedback, and going 1.0 when the game is fully tested and complete. Then, if the game gains an audience, they release on console later, or hire a reputable port expert to do that for them. And — for the most part — release big updates to the game for free, with paid DLC either a rarity or coming long after the game’s release.
There can be some Indie games that release in a rough state though, but usually when it’s a sequel to their previous hit. The only ones I can think of are Sports Story, the sequel to Golf Story on the Switch, or one of the sequels to Trine being bad if I recall correctly.
This is all to say that you’re right, and I was over-generalizing before.
(And, as a side note, please forgive my excessively long posts and replies. I’m autistic and can’t help over-explaining stuff ☺️)
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