Hideo Kojima dashes fans hopes by saying that he is unlikely to revisit P.T. or craft an experience similar to it, while also insisting Silent Hills will never happen

After Hideo Kojima, of Metal Gear fame, and his close friend Guillermo del Toro, of Hellboy and Pacific Rim fame, gave a presentation during DICE the Internet grew aflutter with speculation. And understandably so, considering their horror collaboration P.T. was so incredibly well-received and was followed by the drama surrounding the cancellation of Silent Hills. Curiosity, if not hope, instilled P.T. fans as they questioned whether Kojima and del Toro were perhaps considering revisiting P.T.

In a post-DICE interview with Polygon, Kojima took pity on those fans and put those rumors to rest. There will be no return to P.T. and Silent Hills is well and truly dead. Kojima admits he isn't even considering revisiting horror as a genre. However, he is very interested as horror and terror as a theme:

"I would definitely like to explore horror and by horror I don’t mean horror as a genre, but more like the feeling of terror as a theme, as a topic and this is one aspect that gets really close to interactivity of scariness so that is something I would be interested in exploring in the future."

Kojima says that his lack of interest in pursuing P.T. and horror as a genre stems in part due to the influx of games clearly inspired by his work. He would instead prefer to avoid doing anything similar in tone to P.T. or those follow-up titles from other developers. Though it seems just as likely that Kojima simply wants to avoid anything to do with his work at Konami. "I don't want to look back. I just want to move forward," he says.

It's likely no coincidence that the idea Kojima is trying to convey rings similar to past thoughts from his friend Guillermo del Toro. del Toro is coming off the release of his film Crimson Peak in 2015, a film the critics have described as a horror film that failed to meet the expectations of genre -- or at least the expectations of fans of the genre. But del Toro insists that Crimson Peak is not in fact a horror film. It explored terror and violence as themes, but as Director del Toro says, the movie was always a Gothic Romance - not horror.

That leads into the next big reveal to come out of the Kojima and del Toro DICE presentation, which is that the two want to continue to collaborate. Kojima was especially insistent on it, though he admits that it likely won't be easy to accomplish.

"I don't care what it is. It will probably be really tough. A game or a movie, I don't care, we'll do it."

And so P.T. fans should retain hope, for while anything the two do together likely won't be pure horror like P.T., the creators' ideas for what horror really encompasses leaves plenty of room for something quite terrifying.

That's hopefully what everyone will take away from the DICE presentation and their post-show interviews. This isn't just another story about the legacy of P.T. and the doom of Silent Hills. This is a story about the two promising a joint project in the future. And considering each of their recent historie -- Kojima on Metal Gear Solid V and P.T., del Toro on Pan's Labyrinth and Crimson Peaks - it will likely be a project very much worth looking forward to.

For now, Kojima is currently working on getting his newborn independent studio up and running as they start work on their first game, which is to be a PlayStation 4 console exclusive. Guillermo del Toro is, as ever, ridiculously busy.

Source: Polygon