During an interview this week on the AL Hub Youtube channel, Silent Hill Composer Akira Yamaoka gave a brief tease of his next project. At the 7:50 mark of the video, he is asked, “When will we see the next Akira Yamaoka project?” Through a translator, Yamaoka responds, “Keeping in very general terms, I think you will probably hear something this summer to be announced. And I think it’s kind of the one you are hoping to hear about.”
For those unfamiliar with the work of Akira Yamaoka, he is credited with music direction or composition in a catalog of Konami games. Most notably the entire Silent Hill franchise. This could be in reference to the Cyberpunk 2077 series coming to Netflix that he is tied to. Yet he seems to indicate that the project is unannounced. With that, it doesn’t have to be a game. It could be a Silent Hill film or TV adaptation. Although the summer part really sounds like the E3-ish video game announcement season.
Where There Is Smoke
There have been a ton of unverified and unconfirmed rumors that members of the original Silent Hill team were working on a new game. Most of the rumors involve Sony Japan Studio, the team behind games like Siren and Gravity Rush. A team that used to be led by Keiichiro Toyama the director and creator of Silent Hill. Conversely, all that came to a screeching halt last month when Toyama announced he was leaving SIE Japan to pursue his own team, Bokeh Game Studio. Leaving many to wonder what Toyama had been working on during the three years following Gravity Rush 2?
At the same time, Akira Yamaoka is currently doing press for The Medium. A fantastic homage to classic horror games like Silent Hill. Absolutely a true standout 2021 release that might end up finding its way to our Game of the Year lists. It seems like we will not have to wait long to find out what he is working on. Moreover, this is going to be something to watch for as we enter the summer video game announcement season.
