Konami and Bloober Team have signed a new “strategic co-operation agreement” that will see the companies create games together.
The new partnership between the Silent Hill publisher and The Medium developer will include “jointly developing selected contents and exchanging know-how”, according to a statement released by Bloober Team.
In a seperate press release, Konami said it was “excited to work with Bloober Team and other highly regarded development partners to produce games from existing and new IPs.”
According to people with knowledge of Bloober’s plans, one of the projects it’s working on is Silent Hill related
However, VGC understands that Konami has already outsourced at least one other Silent Hill project to a prominent developer in Japan – and there could even be more developers working on their own projects.
Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno commented on the deal: “It is a historic day for me and the culmination of several years of our work. The fact that such a renowned company as Konami has decided to strategically cooperate with the Bloober Team means that we [have] also joined the world leaders in gaming and become an equal partner for the leading players in this market.”
Bloober Team said in February that it was working on an existing horror IP from “a very famous gaming publisher”, fuelling speculation it could be reviving Konami‘s Silent Hill.
While the studio did not reveal the identity of the franchise it was working on, Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno told GI.biz he believed it would cause quite a stir once it’s revealed.
Babieno’s comments caused fans to speculate that the Polish developer could be working on Silent Hill, the Konami horror series that has reportedly been shopped around by the publisher in recent years.
The Bloober Team news means that more than one franchise reboot could be in the works for Silent Hill, which is something that industry insiders had previously suggested could be Konami’s intention.
Two people with knowledge of the Japanese publisher’s plans told VGC that it had originally approached Dark Pictures developer Supermassive to pitch a Silent Hill reboot. The Supermassive project was ultimately not signed, but the framework for that game evolved into the episodic Dark Pictures titles.
Separate sources told VGC that the Japanese Silent Hill project was something of a departure from past Silent Hill games, so this also matches suggestions that Konami was looking to license alternative takes on the horror series.
Konami’s Japanese bosses are understood to have historically pushed back against most pitches to outsource their key games brands, which is a big reason why the Supermassive game wasn’t greenlit.
However, following the disappointing performance of recent in-house titles Metal Gear Survive and Contra: Rogue Corps, sources said the company has become more willing to contract outside studios for its major franchises.
In addition to Silent Hill, sources said that Konami also has plans to work on Castlevania and Metal Gear Solid games via external companies, but any potential releases are still years away.
