At this point, it's safe to say that no one has any idea what, exactly, is going on over at Konami. First, rumors surfaced that Hideo Kojima – creator of the Metal Gear Solid series – and his team were under "social media lockdown." Then, reports that Kojima had been fired quickly began to spread, all while Konami renamed one of Kojima's development studios. Finally, Konami pulled the demo for Kojima's latest game, Silent Hills, from the PlayStation Network.
One incident hit fans harder than any other — earlier this week, Konami announced that Silent Hills was no longer in production. It was a huge blow to fans, as the playable teaser (P.T.) was one of the scariest horror games in some time — even as just a demo. Silent Hills is the biggest victim of the alleged Konami/Kojima split, and fans were understandably heartbroken.
Gamers may still be reeling from the announcement, but they're not ready to give up on Silent Hills just yet: a Change.org petition asking Kojima to finish the game just surfaced, and it's already got a major following.
The petition essentially begs for Kojima and creative partner Guillmero del Toro to their finish work on the game. It goes on to suggest a crowdfunding campaign if finances become an issue — otherwise, the petition itself is relatively brief. That's not to say it hasn't garnered support — as of this writing, the petition has gather over 34,000 signatures out of the 35,000 needed.
Aside from the issues inherent with online petitions – they usually have little-to-no impact on any given issue – there are some major roadblocks standing in Kojima's way, should he decide to continue working on the project. The biggest is that Konami holds the rights to the Silent Hill franchise. If Kojima decided to continue working on the game, it just couldn't be Silent Hills, plain and simple. There's also a matter of resources — if Kojima is indeed splitting from Konami, any financial support from the publisher will disappear.
There is a chance that Kojima could continue to work on Silent Hills — but it would almost certainly be an uphill battle.
So, is there really any hope for Silent Hills? In its original form, no — and anything regarding the successor of P.T. is pure speculation until Kojima releases a statement.
While it's great to see fans fighting for something they believe in, when you consider the big picture... it just doesn't look good.
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