Over the weekend Konami confirmed to Kotaku plans to scrap development of its upcoming Silent Hiills horror game and pull its innovative announcement demo P.T. from the PlayStation Network.
This is notable for a few reasons, not least of which that Silent Hills project lead Hideo Kojima is believed to be on the outs with Konami and aiming to depart after he wraps up work on the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Last summer Kojima made headlines by announcing (via P.T.’s surprise ending) plans to reboot Konami’s Silent Hill franchise with a new game, Silent Hills, developed in conjunction with Western film director Guillermo del Toro and starring Western actor and Walking Dead TV star Norman Reedus (pictured).
But in recent earnings reports Konami has shifted its focus to the mobile game market as its Western console titles (sans Metal Gear) have failed to match sales expectations, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that the company would move to can Silent Hills while it’s still (presumably) early in development.
This is the second time del Toro has had a notable video game collabo cancelled — in 2010 he publicly signed on to help Volition develop the horror game InSane, only to have THQ shut the project down two years later.
Gamasutra has reached out to Konami for further details on why the game was cancelled and what this means for staff members working on the project.