With the release of free PS5 experience Silent Hill: The Short Message, it’s clear Konami was trying to replicate the unprecedented success of PT. For those who don’t remember, Hideo Kojima’s iconic horror was released on the PS Store as a way to announce Silent Hills – a project that would never see the light of day due to the auteur’s public spat with publisher Konami.
Now that the company has several new Silent Hill projects in the pipeline, however – including Bloober Team’s upcoming remake of Silent Hill 2 – it commissioned the release of The Short Message to put the series back on fans’ radars. And despite being widely panned by critics including ourselves, it’s been a successful experiment, driving over three million downloads to date.