Konami is an interesting company. They had their heyday back in the late 90s and early 2000s when the Metal Gear Solid series hit its stride. Having an auteur like Hideo Kojima in your back pocket is handy, but let’s not forget that they also had a few other franchises that will forever be considered critical to video game history. Castlevania! Silent Hill! Suikoden! Smaller series like Football Manager, Bomberman, and Contra also helped to round out Konami’s very impressive portfolio.
Even when the Silent Hill franchise started to go downhill, it seemed like Konami was still invincible. As long as they had Metal Gear Solid, they could keep going. Plus, you should never underestimate Silent Hill fans. Those people — and I’m counting myself among them — will eat up anything Silent Hill-related. Let’s also not forget that Kojima had announced Silent Hills, which would star Norman Reedus.
Then, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain happened. Kojima left Konami in a very public and nasty spectacle. There were rumors circulating about how Konami was clamping down hard on Kojima’s vision and even removing his name from the game credits. I mean, even Geoff Keighley straight up said during The Game Awards that Kojima couldn’t attend because of all this drama with Konami. What, like Konami was literally keeping him prisoner?
Anyway, that eventually blew over. Konami then stopped focusing on developing games for their core fan base, and instead pivoted over to pachinko machines. I remember clear as day when Konami announced Metal Gear Solid 3 for pachinko. It was a travesty. Konami’s reputation was in the toilet.
The narrative started to change a few years later, though, when Konami began showing up at various events and livestreams again. We got hints of the old Konami we all knew and loved. Little things, like a new Contra game, began to suggest that maybe Konami was coming back to the video game scene. That all culminated in their announcement of the Silent Hill 2 remake. Working with Bloober Team, the Silent Hill 2 remake would be a faithful, from the ground up remake of the original PS2 game. Just with enhanced graphics, mechanics, and new voice acting.
Konami continued riding that remake train and eventually announced Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. We’ve actually come full circle at this point. From the alleged firing of Kojima to the criminally offensive MGS3 pachinko game announcement, it was as if Konami had finally seen the light. Here it is! A beautiful remake of a legendary game for modern platforms. Incredible. They’re really going all out with this one, even bringing back Cynthia Harrell to re-record Snake Eater.
In June 2025, Konami announced that they were working on a remake of the first Silent Hill game for the PS1. The announcement came at the end of their Press Start conference — a Konami-hosted livestream all about video games, imagine that — with Akira Yamaoka’s iconic theme blasting, shadowy fog all over the screen with a Silent Hill title card. Exciting stuff.
But I guess now I’m starting to wonder: what happens when Konami inevitably runs out of good games to remake and re-release?
What’s next? I guess Konami could always work through the rest of their Metal Gear and Silent Hill catalogues, then maybe move on to Castlevania after that? The thing that doesn’t quite sit right with me is the fact that these remakes, so far, have felt devoid of love and passion, which might be a strange thing to say about Silent Hill 2, a game that is literally all about love and passion taken so far it drives you to murder.
The Silent Hill 2 remake, while technically excellent, feels empty and devoid of creativity. It’s a faithful remake of an already near-perfect PS2 game, yes, but there’s something about it that feels weirdly clean and sterile. The same could be said about Delta: Snake Eater too, where everything looks pretty and stunning, but there’s also something about that game that just feels clinical. Surgical. Like, here’s a game that you loved, polished to a scary shine. It feels devoid of personality. It needs to be a little dirty, a little muddied up, and it’s not, which makes it feel a little less special as a result.
As someone who loves the first two Silent Hill games to death, the Silent Hill remake announcement left me feeling strangely empty. Perhaps because I already know exactly what to expect from it. The remake will continue blasting Yamaoka’s score, complete with shiny new character models of Harry Mason and Cybil Bennett. It’ll also be missing that uncanny valley creepiness of the PS1 CGI cutscenes, which is ironic, considering that games from that era were already trying so hard to be as photorealistic as possible. Now that the technology’s finally caught up, I find myself wishing I could go back to that era instead.
I also find myself comparing these remakes to the efforts of Capcom and Square Enix with Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII. I could see a case for the latter: the PS1 graphics are terribly dated at this point, and a full, faithful remake with souped up graphics would’ve been enough for me. But even then, Square Enix went the extra mile. The combat system has been overhauled, as has the open-world. The story, as it unfolds, slowly reveals that this isn’t actually a remake at all, but a retelling. There are many things about Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth that I dislike, but you can see the vision behind it. Someone cares about this thing and the new stories they want to tell.
It’s the same for Resident Evil 2 and 4, both of which were considered to be near-perfect survival horror games when they came out. Capcom’s remakes largely stick to the source material, but there are also just enough new surprises in there to help keep players on their toes, and also give veterans something to look forward to. We’re talking dramatic changes in tone, new set-pieces and bosses, and even slight character rewrites to wash away some of Resident Evil‘s campiness (though I love the campiness) and make it feel actually scary.
In all fairness to Konami, it does seem like the Snake Eater team has put a lot of consideration into that overall package. The new Fox Hunt mode, for instance, genuinely looks promising. If it’s able to recapture even a fraction of the magic of Metal Gear Online, that would be more than enough for me.
I suppose I’m writing this because I just wanted to wax nostalgic about Konami a little, and also reflect on the company’s journey so far. What was once considered a titan in the video games industry still feels like just a shell of its former self, especially as they continue down the sterile remake pipeline. I want to see Konami innovate again. Maybe I’m finally ready to leave that town behind, and I just wish Konami would do the same.
