Konami Corp disappointed many horror game fans when it cancelled development of Silent Hills, and no one was more disappointed than acclaimed film director Guillermo Del Toro, who had been working on the game in partnership with Silent Hill creator Hideo Kojima. According to Del Toro, production had been going great until Kojima’s unexpected split from the game studio.

“The collaboration between Kojima and myself, the meetings, and the friendship that was developing was beautiful,” Del Toro told IGN. “We had an agreement on where to go. We had an agreement on how we were going to push the new platforms. We were having a blast.”

Del Toro and Kojima created P.T., a short free game on PlayStation Network that was ultimately revealed to be a “playable teaser” for Silent Hills. The teaser was incredibly well-received, and it generated a lot of hype for the upcoming game.

Shortly after Kojima’s mysterious split from Konami, however, Silent Hills was cancelled, and P.T. was removed from PSN. The teaser was so popular, that PlayStation consoles with P.T. still installed were being sold on eBay until many were removed from the site.

“It was not a gentle and ambiguous cancellation”

Del Toro is critical of Konami’s choice to remove P.T. from PSN and preventing people who had already played it from re-downloading the teaser.

“Honestly that’s what surprised me,” Del Toro said. “It was a sort of scorched earth approach. It was not a gentle and ambiguous cancellation.”

Konami has remained notoriously silent about Kojima’s departure from the company, but the Japanese game studio came under fire earlier this year when it started removing Kojima’s name from box art and promotional material for several games, including titles that were released years ago. The studio has said that it will continue developing games in Kojima’s franchises, including both Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid, even without his involvement.

Del Toro said that he is still interested in creating Silent Hills, but only if Kojima were part of it.

“Hideo and I have been in touch,” Del Toro said. “And he knows he would be the only guy I would follow to the ends of the earth on anything. I think if anything can be rescued, I will be more than happy.”

photo credit: Guillermo del Toro via photopin (license)