Konami still uncertain of Silent Hill 5 platform
by Richard Mitchell 
{ May 31st 2007 at 5:00PM }
Some people really enjoy the comfortable zombie-slaying action of the Resident Evil series. Others, however, prefer the mind-rending psychological nightmare that is Silent Hill. A proper entry in the series hasn't been seen since 2004's Silent Hill 4: The Room, which departed heavily from the typical Silent Hill formula. Ever since, fans have been wondering about the inevitable new-gen sequel without much help from the series' publisher, Konami. In fact, Konami has yet to officially announce the existence of Silent Hill 5 at all. In a recent interview with Dengeki PlayStation (unearthed by SilentHill5.net) Silent Hill 5's chief designer, Masahashi Tsuboyama, is nearly as vague as the series itself. When asked about the platforms on which the game might appear, Tsuboyama states that a console has not been chosen. He also says that multi-platform status is not out of the question either. He further adds that the 360 is "definitely a candidate," he likes Blu-Ray, and he believes Silent Hill probably isn't a good fit for the Wii.
So, no definite confirmation then. Fear not Silent Hill aficionados, for there is a ray of hope. Konami's E3 press conference is slated for July 11th. Let's hope we get a real glimpse of Silent Hill 5 by then.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hot fish @ May 31st 2007 5:14PM
those japs need to stop beating around the bush! It's being developed on the 360 for right now because the developer (who must not be named) doesn't know jack about the Ps3!!
VeHeMeNcE @ May 31st 2007 5:16PM
I'm looking forward to this more than anything, I've been dying to get a next gen Silent Hill....I just hope they bring it to the 360.
L @ May 31st 2007 5:53PM
"he likes Blu-Ray"
Konami love to lick sonys A$$ if you ask me.... Give the dog a bone
Still i would love to see the game on 360
Toph @ May 31st 2007 5:50PM
Richard I personally have to thank you for this story. I appreciate being updated, for what it's worth! I'm a HUGE Konami and Silent Hill guy; one of the biggest fans you'll find.
I only hope the next Silent Hill game feels LIKE a Silent Hill game, and not as odd as Silent Hill 4 was. It shouldn't be an action game, nor should it be too bogged down in story. I personally would look at the formula set forth by Silent Hill 2; an isolated story that furthers the whole idiom in it's part.
I hope the next game also takes a cue from the movie and shows us the Darkness evolving from the normal world. That would be incredible! I wouldn't mind seeing Pyramid Head back again, dispite the fact it may or may not actually fit in the story.
I'd love to have the setting actually WITHIN Silent Hill and not nearby Brahms.
Lastly I'd love to see a large emphasis on physics and real-world atmospheric conditions. Silent Hill is an immersive expierience that works best when the player feels like they are actually within Silent Hill.
Keep us updated Richard!
OTAM @ May 31st 2007 6:10PM
If this goes to PS3 then the next Silent Hill is going to cost me $650 dollars :(
Ithilis @ May 31st 2007 7:49PM
I love me some Silent Hill. If it comes out for the 360, I'll definitely get it.. but if it comes out for the PS3, I may have to cave and get one. Ugh!
Toph @ May 31st 2007 8:11PM
I have a standing rule: No PS3 unless there's no less than FIVE (5) exclusive titles on the console I need to buy. Until then, Silent Hill and Metal Gear 4 would have to wait if those titles indeed are PS3 exclusives.
b @ May 31st 2007 8:42PM
I'd say its a 99% shot at going on 360. SH2/3/4/ have been on PC and SH2/4 on Xbox1. Since 360 is the #1 in total sales, it would be a no-brainer that SH5 would be on 360.
John Smith @ Jun 1st 2007 5:53AM
I'm sure Silent Hill 5 is in development for both the Xbox 360 and PC, because those are by far the two most popular platforms, and they are very easy for developers to work with.
I agree with Toph that there needs to be a certain number of "exclusive" games for a game system before you would ever consider buying that game system. After all it doesn't make sense to buy a $600 Playstation 3 that doesn't even come with high-definition cables.
I think there needs to be one exclusive game for every $50 the system costs. When I bought my Xbox 360 for $400, the exclusive games I like the most were Gears of War, Crackdown, Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Perfect Dark Zero, Rockstar Games: Table Tennis, Dead or Alive 4, Project Gotham Racing 3, and also some games that were console exclusives for Xbox 360, but also released on PC, like Call of Duty 2 and Rainbow Six: Vegas.
Even if I had a requirement that there was one exclusive game I wanted for every $100, instead of every $50 the system costs, I still wouldn't want a Playstation 3, because it doesn't have enough high-quality exclusive games.
The other thing that makes me not want a Playstation 3 is the fact that every single game ever released on both systems has been rated higher on the Xbox 360.
And the situation seems to be getting worse for the Playstation 3. A lot of the games are now released much earlier on the Xbox 360, and much later on the Playstation 3, yet the Xbox 360 version is still better graphically, and in terms of gameplay and online features.
Just look at the way F.E.A.R. was launched on the PC and the Xbox 360 at the end of 2006 and won all sorts of awards for graphics and gameplay. But when F.E.A.R. was released six months later on the Playstation 3 it was perhaps the worst performing next-gen game yet released. The Playstation 3 version is a joke! Read the review here from 1up to see for yourself: http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3158930
Also, consider that Square Enix has now said Final Fantasy 13 Versus is no longer being developed for any system, because the Lead Developer says he only works on one game at a time, and he is currently working on a mobile phone game! That SUX!!!!!!
Just think about how Metal Gear Solid 4 went from being a game that was supposed to be released in the spring of 2007 to the Holiday shopping season of 2007, but was then delayed until the spring of 2008. Everyone knows a game like Metal Gear Solid 4 would never see a release in the spring; it will only see a release during the Holiday shopping season part of the year. That means we won't see Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3 until the 4th quarter of 2008!!! That is a LOOOOOONG time away!!!!
Square Enix recently said that we won't see Final Fantasy 13 during this business year, which ends March 31, 2008. So, the soonest we could hope to see Final Fantasy 13 is April of 2008. But, that won't happen; it will likely be the 4th quarter of 2008...in Japan!!! We likely won't see Final Fantasy 13 in North America or Europe until 2009!!! That SUX!!!
Reasons like that are why I don't really care about the Playstation 3.
Xbox 360 has PLENTY of exclusive games that are very high-quality. Xbox 360 also has PLENTY of best-seller Platinum Hit games that have sold over one-million copies and now sell for $29.99 or $19.99. And all third-party games released on both systems always are rated higher on Xbox 360.
No doubt about it, I'm sticking with my Xbox 360, because it's the best.
JamieBoi V2 @ Jun 1st 2007 8:54AM
My head hurts...
TheGuy @ Jun 1st 2007 9:57AM
@John Smith
It may be somewhat suicidal for me to try and defend the PS3 in a 360 site, but after that rant I feel compelled to respond.
"The other thing that makes me not want a Playstation 3 is the fact that every single game ever released on both systems has been rated higher on the Xbox 360."
Actually, a lot of people have said the PS3 version of Oblivion looks a little better and has faster load times than the 360 version. I'll admit some of the game ports to the PS3 haven't looked very good compared to the 360 version, but now we're starting to see developers get past the learning curve and better utilize the PS3's hardware. It's also nice to see that some game developers are giving extra features to a PS3 version of a game to utilize the extra space on the Blu-Ray disk (ex. The Darkness, Stranglehold).
"Also, consider that Square Enix has now said Final Fantasy 13 Versus is no longer being developed for any system, because the Lead Developer says he only works on one game at a time, and he is currently working on a mobile phone game! That SUX!!!!!!"
It's just a mobile phone game, it wont take him long to finish that. Just because the lead developer is busy with another project doesn't mean all activity on developing Versus has stopped. Besides, the same guy said in the same interview he's not focusing on Versus yet not only because he's busy on a mobile phone game but he also wants to give more time for the developers to familiarize themselves with the PS3's hardware and learn how to better utilize its hardware.
"Just think about how Metal Gear Solid 4 went from being a game that was supposed to be released in the spring of 2007 to the Holiday shopping season of 2007, but was then delayed until the spring of 2008. Everyone knows a game like Metal Gear Solid 4 would never see a release in the spring; it will only see a release during the Holiday shopping season part of the year. That means we won't see Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3 until the 4th quarter of 2008!!! That is a LOOOOOONG time away!!!! Square Enix recently said that we won't see Final Fantasy 13 during this business year, which ends March 31, 2008. So, the soonest we could hope to see Final Fantasy 13 is April of 2008. But, that won't happen; it will likely be the 4th quarter of 2008...in Japan!!! We likely won't see Final Fantasy 13 in North America or Europe until 2009!!! That SUX!!!"
They don't have to be released in the 4th quarter. Final Fantasy 12 was released in the spring in Japan and it sold well there. Since North America and Japan have had close release dates for MGS games, I'm guessing MGS4 will be released in North America in the spring. My guess is FF13 will probably be released late-spring to early summer in Japan and probably be released in North America in the fall. Just because we won't be getting those games this year doesn't mean we won't be having any good games. The exclusive games I can remember off the top of my head are Lair, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Folksoul, among other great exclusives (also Killzone, but I doubt it'll be released this year). Trust me, the PS3 may have had a rough start but soon it'll be going at full stride.
John Smith @ Jun 1st 2007 5:47PM
@TheGuy:
Even if Japan did receive Final Fantasy 13 by the summer of 2008, the odds that North America would receive it by Christmas of 2008 are very small. Not only that, but the odds that Europe would see Final Fantasy 13 before 2009 are almost impossible.
Metal Gear Solid 4 will almost certainly not be available during the spring of 2008 for the Playstation 3. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a game that I read has "a Holiday shopping season birthmark on it, because it would be a wasted opportunity to release the game any time other than the 4th quarter of the year."
Jim Smith @ Jun 1st 2007 6:06PM
The game called "Oblivion" was in fact rated higher on the Xbox 360.
The editors from 1up.com specifically point out during the review that they have played Oblivion for over 200 hours, and they said if you have an Xbox 360, a PC, and a PS3, the least desirable version is the PS3 version.
The reason why the PS3 version of Oblivion is the worst one is because it doesn't have all of the extra features, content, and expansion stuff that the Xbox 360 and PC versions do. On the PS3 there is no such thing as the 30 hour expansion called Shivering Isles, and there is no such thing as the Thieves Den, or even Horse Armor. All those things are missing from the PS3 version.
As far as load times go, the PS3 version does have faster load times when you enter cities; it takes like 4 seconds instead of 9 seconds. Xbox 360 games almost always have way faster load-times than Playstation 3 games. Oblivion is literally the only PS3 game that is programmed in a way where the hard drive helps the PS3 with load times like that. Games like Oblivion take up a lot of space on the PS3 hard drive, that's why.
The graphics of Oblivion are nearly identical on both systems; they each have pluses and minuses. Xbox 360 has better looking dungeons and better lighting, but the PS3 version has some of the outdoor environments that look a little better. One thing is for sure is that the Playstation 3 version of the game is VERY glitchy!
It was very nice the way the Xbox 360 version of the game received the EXACT same graphics update the PS3 did with the Shaders, when the Xbox 360 expansion was released. The only difference in graphics that people saw in some of those outdoor environments where you can see further into the distance is because of the software Shaders improvements Oblivion made over the course of time. Bethesda said it was originally their intention to make those improvements in the Xbox 360 and PC versions all along. Thankfully, with the release of the Shivering Isles expansion for the Xbox 360, Bethesda released that Shader update that made the improvements to the Xbox 360 version.
Oblivion is a great game on any system, it's just that the Xbox 360 version is better for fundamental reasons related to gameplay.
Here is the link to what 1up had to say about how the Xbox 360 version of Oblivion is the one you should get, rather than the PS3 version. http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3158125
TimeTravel @ Jun 1st 2007 6:18PM
Hey John,
I agree with what you said about how crappy F.E.A.R. is for the Playstation 3. I would have thought that a game released six months after the release of the PS3 would have been heading in the right direction, but it isn't.
In fact, it really concerns me that all of the rumors about how the PS3 is having problems with the Unreal 3.0 engine are true. Look at how Rainbow Six: Vegas still isn't available for the PS3, even though it has been available for Xbox 360 for over half a year.
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 is another one that was supposed to be released on both systems, but is still only available for Xbox 360.
And it seems like more and more games are being released on PC and Xbox 360, but not Playstation 3.
The guy named TheGuy really needs to look at when the games were released. F.E.A.R. came out after Oblivion did, and F.E.A.R. is garbage on the Playstation 3. This means the performance of the Playstation 3 has gone way off course and is not headed in the right direction.
After seeing the newly released F.E.A.R. on the PS3, with such crappy graphic performance, I know I wouldn't be interested in waiting for the PS3 versions of Rainbow Six: Vegas or GRAW2.
I can see why Ubisoft said the PS3 doesn't have the graphic power to do Splinter Cell: Conviction. That's why that game is only on Xbox 360 and PC, because of the incredible graphic performance.
matjet @ Jun 1st 2007 10:53PM
arg the stupidity.