Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama has revealed new details about his next game, which he promises will appeal to the horror fans that made him into an industry legend. The upcoming action horror title, which may have to compete with hot titles like a Resident Evil 4 remake and a Silent Hill reboot, is currently in pre-production and slated to release in 2023.
Keiichiro Toyama, has directed multiple games since his early Silent Hill days at Konami, most recently getting mostly positive reception for the Sony-exclusive Gravity Rush franchise. Those games are noticeably not horror-themed, so this latest project marks a major thematic return to form for the famed designer. Horror is perhaps more popular now in gaming now than it was all the way back when directed and wrote the original Silent Hill two decades ago, so there will definitely be an audience waiting for Toyama’s latest.
His yet-unnamed project is being developed by his newly founded Bokeh Game Studio. In an interview with IGN, Toyama said that he is working on an “action-adventure game” that will appeal to many fans of his other work. When he was asked if this would lean more towards horror, Toyama confirmed it will be “horror-oriented game” but will be a “broader entertainment” title accessible to a more mainstream audience “rather than a hardcore horror game.” Despite Toyama’s long stint at Sony Interactive Entertainment, he says this upcoming game is planned as a multi-platform release that will come to “as many console platforms as possible,” citing PC “as the lead platform.” Though still in the early stages of development, Toyama and his team are targeting a 2023 release window for the title.
Toyama hasn’t delved into horror since 2008’s Siren: Blood Curse, so fans of his horror work will surely jump at the chance for more. While there have been multiple sequels in the Silent Hill franchise, with the latest being Silent Hill: Book of Memories in 2012, Toyama wasn’t directly involved with the survival horror franchise since the original. There’s been speculation that the dormant series will return as a PS5 exclusive, there has been no official confirmation of Silent Hill‘s return, giving Bokeh all the more reason to try to fill that vacuum before Silent Hill publisher Konami decides to stop sitting on its horror gold mine.
Equipped with his own modern studio now to make a horror game how he wants, horror fans will hopefully be treated to classic Toyama style with plenty of modern technical twists and improvements. As Bokeh is aiming for PC and multi-platform releases, it’s probably safe to assume that this upcoming game will be quite the impressive (and scary) sight on modern hardware.
