Major figures mourn Silent Hills as cancellation appears likely

It's looking more and more like Silent Hills is canceled, with principal figures attached to the project mourning its demise on Twitter and a source telling Polygon that the game is "pretty much dead."

Last night the director Guillermo del Toro, who had been co-directing the game with Hideo Kojima, is said to have told attendees at a film festival in San Francisco that Silent Hills "is not gonna happen," according to an attendee via Twitter. Del Toro's assistant retweeted that, and then made other comments indicating the project was being shelved.

"It's not gonna happen and that breaks my greasy heart." -Guillermo del Toro on #SilentHills. #sfff #sffs #sffilmfest #fb

— TV's Matt Hackney (@tvsmatthackney) April 26, 2015

.@Robogeek damn is right.

— Ian Gibson (@Ian_Gibson) April 26, 2015

Now Norman Reedus, the Walking Dead actor playing Silent Hills' protagonist, is saying similar things on his own Twitter, in reaction to news about the project.

Super bummed about this was really looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll come back around. Sorry everyone http://t.co/drZJ8tBsSN

— norman reedus (@wwwbigbaldhead) April 26, 2015

Last night it was revealed that P.T., the game's "playable teaser," would be pulled from PlayStation Network on April 30, another sign pointing to a strange breakup between Konami and Hideo Kojima, who was collaborating with Del Toro in directing Silent Hills.

Polygon reached out for news about the fate of the game, and was told by a person with knowledge of the project's development that it is effectively canceled.

Konami representatives have not responded to Polygon's requests for comment. Polygon also reached out to Del Toro's assistant and Reedus' publicist.

If Silent Hills is shut down, attention now turns to Konami's other franchises, namely Metal Gear Solid. Last month, Konami removed Kojima's name and the Kojima Productions logo from the official Metal Gear Solid websites, Twitter accounts and marketing materials. That spawned reports that Kojima would be leaving the publisher for whom he as worked his entire career.

Silent Hills was, with Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain one of only two console games actively under development to be published by Konami. Phantom Pain is due for a Sept. 1 launch. A third franchise, Pro Evolution Soccer, typically launches in the fall but its latest edition has not been announced.

Update: Konami responds.