Del Toro hits out at Konami's cancellation of Silent Hills

Director Guillermo Del Toro was as surprised as anyone by Konami's sudden decision to cancel Silent Hills last month, telling IGN that he and collaborator Hideo Kojima were "having a blast" on the project, and that everything appeared to be going really well.

"Norman [Reedus, who was signed to play the lead role] was super happy, Hideo was super happy, and so was I," Del Toro said. "I know there’s a petitiongoing on the internet and it’s gathering signatures. I would add my signature to it, and hope that someone pays attention."

He said the popularity of PT, the "playable trailer" for Silent Hills released last year, demonstrated that there's a widespread passion for the series, and called Konami's decision to remove it from the PlayStation Store and prevent owners from redownloading it a "scorched earth approach."

As we noted when the cancellation was announced, there was never any guarantee that Silent Hills would come to the PC, but it seemed distinctly possible given the recent successes of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroesand with MGS 5: The Phantom Painon the way. Now, however, it's starting to look like Konami's priorities have shifted away from its focus on traditional platforms.

"I felt strongly that from now on, mobile will be at the heart of game platforms, and that we need a business strategy which creates games in accordance with observations of consumer usage trends. Arcade games, console games, card games; we need to shift from selling 'physical things' to selling 'intangible things'," CEO Hideki Hayakawa told Nikkei Trendy, via GamesIndustry.

"Recently I hear the phrase 'mobile first' a lot, but for our company, 'mobile first' doesn't mean just doing mobile," he said. "Rather, it means that we will combine the use of mobile, the platform which is closest to our customers, with consoles, arcade games and card games, construct a portfolio, expand the styles of play and our customer base."

In spite of that, Del Toro offered a small sliver of hope to fans that while Silent Hills might be dead, it's not quite buried. "Hideo and I have been in touch," he 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."

[ Editor's note: This story originally ran with quotes from a NeoGAFtranslation of a report posted at jin115.com. We have since updated with verified quotes from GamesIndustry.]