For the long time fans of the classic horror-suspense series Silent Hill, we have some good news. The creator of the franchise, Keiichiro Toyama, has announced that he and his new studio, Bokeh Game Studio, have started development on brand new IP. According to the post on IGN, the new title will be a “horror-themed action-adventure” and will appeal heavily to his fans. The studio is shooting for a 2023 release time frame.
In the post, Toyama gave a little more information on this new venture. The development team is “fairly large” and that the approximate time frame for completion of the game will take around 2-3 years, hence the 2023 estimation. Toyama also mentioned that the current lead platform for the game is PC, but hopes to release it for multiple systems if possible. Toyama also stated that he, along with others at Bokeh Game Studio, plan to share some behind the scenes on their respective social media as the development progresses.
Toyama’s 20 plus years in the video game industry has been well documented. He began his career as a designer/programmer at Konami, working on the game Snatcher. His career took off when he created and released the first Silent Hill title for the original PlayStation in 1999. The game was well-received, but despite the success, Toyama actually departed Konami soon after to join SCE Japan Studios to work on the Siren series. While the first Silent Hill is considered a landmark game, it was the sequel, Silent Hill 2, that went onto become of the most critically acclaimed titles for the PlayStation 2 and is considered one of the greatest horror games of all time.
Toyama later created another popular franchise, this time for the handheld PlayStation Vita; Gravity Rush. The game did very well and was one of the few must-have titles for the Vita. Toyama also worked on Gravity Rush Remastered and Gravity Rush 2, both of which launched for the PlayStation 4 in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Toyama plans to depart SCE Japan Studio by the end of this year, and in August established his own studio, the aforementioned Bokeh Game Studio. It might be a while until we hear more about this new IP, but with Toyama at the helm, we’re very excited to see what they have in store for us.