Vapourware The rape will never end. Konami is set to revive Metal Gear Castlevania and Silent Hill

[karoliner]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...evive-metal-gear-castlevania-and-silent-hill/

Konami is set to revive Metal Gear, Castlevania and Silent Hill
THE JAPANESE PUBLISHER WILL REVEAL MAJOR PROJECTS AFTER A PERIOD OF RELATIVE QUIET

Konami is set to ramp up its premium game development with new instalments and remakes for its biggest franchises, including Metal Gear and Castlevania.

That’s according to publishing sources who spoke to VGC anonymously, because they did not have permission to discuss their projects publicly.

Konami’s premium games output has slowed down significantly in recent years. The last new Metal Gear game was 2018’s critically panned Metal Gear Survive, while the last mainline Castlevania release was 2014’s Lord of Shadow 2.

In the past decade, the company has arguably grown a bigger reputation for its Pachinko gambling games, than for its premium PC and console releases.

However, following a restructure to the company’s game development divisions earlier this year, Konami is now focused on bringing back its biggest brands to the premium games space, VGC was told.

The first of these titles will be a new Castlevania game, which sources described as a “reimagining” of the series currently in development internally at Konami in Japan, with support from local external studios.

There’s been much speculation that Demon’s Souls studio Bluepoint could be working on a remake of Metal Gear Solid. However, VGC was told the series is actually being worked on by an external studio, Virtuos.

Established in 2004, Virtuos is one of the largest game developers in the world and focuses on supporting the development of major triple-A games or bringing existing games to new platforms.

Recently it worked on the Switch ports of Dark Souls Remastered, The Outer Worlds and The BioShock Collection, as well as contributing art and content to blockbusters such as Battlefield 1, Uncharted 4 and Horizon Zero Dawn.

The new project is currently in early development and multiple sources suggested it would be centred around fan-favourite entry Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, rather than the original MGS.

Konami also intends to release remasters of the original Metal Gear Solid games for modern consoles, ahead of the larger project, we understand.

Finally, multiple Silent Hill games are currently in development at various external development studios, as per an earlier VGC report from February.

One of these projects was outsourced to a prominent Japanese developer earlier this year, we were told.

Konami should publicly showcase its plans at major shows next year, disruption from the pandemic permitting. Konami pulled out of this year’s E3 2021 show due to “timing” issues, although at the time it confirmed it had “a number of key projects” in the works.

Konami’s Japanese bosses are understood to have historically pushed back against most pitches to outsource its key games brands, which is a big reason why previous pitches for Silent Hill games, such as one by Until Dawn studio Supermassive, weren’t greenlit.

However, following the disappointing performance of recent in-house titles Metal Gear Survive and Contra: Rogue Corps, VGC’s sources said the company has become more willing to contract outside studios for its major franchises.

VGC first reported Konami’s softening of its stance over licensing its game properties earlier this year, in a report revealing that the company has outsourced a new Silent Hill game.

Last year, Konami ramped up its game efforts with the creation of a new external publishing programme, with which it hoped to sign more Western-developed titles.

 

[Ash]

There are very few classic favorites of mine that haven't been destroyed by this point. PC, console, genre it doesn't matter everything is up for grabs if it was once popular. The modern industry or rather those that comprise it have no soul, shame or integrity. It doesn't help that most gamers are halfwits that created the demand for endless remakes, nonetheless the onus to not be sellout fucks ultimately lies on the industry.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I'm not surprised, wasn't that Netflix series really popular, or at least popular enough to point at for shareholders? The possibly interesting, but not really part is Silent Hill, since that series, in both sales and quality has been a zombie that just won't die. That Konami is going to have multiple new titles in the series is quite out of character for them at this point.

 

[Ash]

I'm not sure why you single out Silent Hill? I don't have the statistics but I believe both Metal Gear and Castlevania have consistently been more popular and more milked than Silent Hill over the years.

Is it the quality part? Because recent Castlevanias aren't even Castlevania but some shitty DMC/God of War clones, and the newer Metal Gears are rather mediocre (4, 5). I suppose the new Metal Gears are OK compared to most long-running raped classics.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I single it out because the article says there are multiple new titles in Silent Hill, as opposed to just one new one for Metal Gear and Castlevania. And I single it out for precisely the reasons I mentioned and you agreed with. Even during their peak they never reached more than a few million sales, and after their peak nothing good has been said about it. From a purely corporate standpoint, which I am assuming Konami is still trying to think from, it just seems strange to me to revive a series on that level when it failed to produce a hit for longer than it had produced hits.

 

[deuxhero]

All Konami had to do was contract ArtPlay to do a Battle of 1999 game. Everyone wants to finish off that piece of the saga and Iga said he was willing to work with Konami again.

 

[Gastrick]

What is wrong with them getting back to making video games? Who knows, one of them might even be good. It's not like these franchises do not already have awful games made for them already, they've had their purity stolen already by other titles.

 

[Ash]

We want the rape to end. That is clear in the thread title.

 

[Barabus]

Team silent assemble!!!!

 

[Wunderbar]

From a purely corporate standpoint, which I am assuming Konami is still trying to think from, it just seems strange to me to revive a series on that level when it failed to produce a hit for longer than it had produced hits.

maybe they are going for quantity over quality. The fact that they are working with hacks from Bloober Team speaks a lot already.

 

[vortex]

Who is making Castlevania?

 

[Falksi]

Tbh I couldn't give a fuck about any of those franchises now anyway.

The only Metal Gear game which I truly enjoyed was the first one, Castlevania was a fantastic series but went to shit with the advent of 3-D, and I never really liked the Silent Hill games anyway.

Let them so their worst. It can't be much worse than they've been doing to this series for years now anyway.

I'll be booting up the Megadrive to play Demons of Asteborg later, and looking for the next gen of indie games which are the true sequels to the now-butchered parent franchises which birthed then.

 

[Alienman]

I wouldn't mind them making more Metal Gear in the fox engine. I have a feeling though, if they make anything at all it's going to be a remake and not a new story.

 

[Riskbreaker]

Bloober Team seems to be a bit of critic's darling after The Medium, a game where nothing outside the art attracts me overmuch. LoF profited from the PT hype and Silent Hills cancellation but, outside its visuals, I doubt it would've attracted much attention by itself. I enjoyed Observer's grimy early-90 cyberpunk vibe and weirdness, think The Lawnmower Man and Johnny Mnemonic, and late Rutger Hauer, but again not much game (basic puzzles and a bit of crouch and stay outta line of sight stealth) or compelling writing in it and it was far too long for what it was.
So given their capabilities and sensibilities, both in writing and game design, they can only produce something like another Shattered Memories. Which, with appealing visuals, is something that might garner high scores today but is not something I'd care to play.

 

[toughasnails]

There was an entry for MGS3 in the recent Geforce leak, new HD remasters being in the works would explain both that and why they didn't release the old port of MGS2 on Steam but only on GOG.
I guess that the new Castlevania game will probably be based off the anime given its huge popularity. I didn't hate the MercurySteam Castlevania reboot btw, it was a solid spectacle fighter with nice atmosphere and visuals. I never played its sequel.

 

[d1r]

And I just KNOW which dev studios will be delighted to rape them to non-existance

Spoiler

 

[JDR13]

How is this "reviving" Metal Gear? It's not like it's been that long since the last game.

 

[†††]

Waiting for them to receive the PES treatment

 

[Btan0]

How is this "reviving" Metal Gear? It's not like it's been that long since the last game.

MGS V was 6 years ago, which is quite a break for a popular franchise. And I know you couldn't possibly be referring that "thing" that Konami released several years after V...

 

[Silverfish]

Death Stranding left no cultural footprint.

Castlevania and Silent Hill are free of the guy driving them full-speed into a ditch.

Konami's taking money from degenerate gamblers and funneling it into something worthwhile.

Yeah, I'm thinking we're back.

 

[Viata]

Waiting for them to receive the PES treatment

El monstruo de la laguna albiceleste.

 

[racofer]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...evive-metal-gear-castlevania-and-silent-hill/

Konami is set to revive Metal Gear, Castlevania and Silent Hill

 

[Wunderbar]

Spoiler

 

[Baron Dupek]

"For survival horror to live we must abandon nostalgia enough to make room for the present."
- Abraham Lincoln

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Those MFers snuck into my trailer.