Masahiro Ito, the acclaimed art director behind Silent Hill 2 and 3, has announced that he is working on a new project as a “core member” he hopes “won’t be cancelled.”
Known most recently as a creature designer on the ill-received Metal Gear Survive, Ito is far more beloved for his iconic work on the original Silent Hill trilogy, all of which remain masterful examples of survival horror.
Now, the horror mastermind is working on a brand-new project, presumably at Konami, which he sincerely hopes “won’t be cancelled,” according to a recent tweet on his personal account. Given his work on Silent Hills, we can’t blame him for being a little sceptical.
Silent Hills was a project being helmed by Konami alongside Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro before its untimely cancellation several years ago. A playable teaser was released to announce the game, and has gone down in history as one of the scariest games ever made. It even featured The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus, who has since starred in Kojima’s own Death Stranding.
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I’m working on a title as a core member. I hope the title won’t be cancelled.
— 伊藤暢達/Masahiro Ito (@adsk4) January 4, 2020
It remains unclear whether this new project is being developed at Konami or has anything to do with the Silent Hill franchise, although given Ito’s history with the property, we wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been brought back into the fold. We’d love a complete reboot at this point if we’re being completely honest, something that’s far more than a cynical pachinko machine spin-off.
Silent Hill 2 is one of the best survival horror experiences ever created, presenting a bleak, melancholic vision filled with psychological terrors the player must confront as James Sunderland, a man who ventures to the haunted town after receiving a mysterious letter from his deceased wife. Things go downhill from here as you piece together a truly harrowing mystery, meeting an assortment of demented characters and monsters along the way.
We imagine this new project is in development for PS5 and Xbox Series X given we expect the consoles to launch later this year, and we’d be very surprised if Ito’s new project is both announced and released in the span of 12 months. But what do we know, stranger things have happened.