Two of the biggest horror game franchises are Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but only of them is actively releasing new games to this day. Whereas Capcom's Resident Evil franchise has consistently released critically-acclaimed games, Konami's Silent Hill series has failed to keep up. Eventually, this saw Hideo Kojima take the reigns and start work on the ambitious Silent Hills. Sadly, Konami canceled Silent Hills, and we haven't heard anything about a new Silent Hill game since then.
Konami's decision to mostly move away from traditional game development and focus on its other ventures means that we likely won't see a new Silent Hill game anytime soon, if ever. This means that Silent Hill is effectively dead, outside of the occasional slot machine, but not all classic horror game franchises share such a grim fate.
In fact, there are three horror game franchises that have been dormant for some time that all stand a decent shot at coming back from the dead. Whether or not it ever comes to pass remain to be seen, but horror game fans should keep an eye out.
Dino Crisis
Capcom recently announced that it has plans to revive some of its dormant franchises, once again renewing hope that a new Dino Crisis game could be on the way. Capcom itself has teased that a new Dino Crisis could be in the works, and rumors about such a project have been swirling for years. In fact, there was one rather prominent rumor that a new Dino Crisis game would be announced at Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference, though such an announcement never actually came to pass.
However, Capcom's willingness to bring back its dormant franchises means that there is a very real possibility that the long-rumored new Dino Crisis game could finally materialize. But the question remains whether it will be in the form of a sequel to the existing games or if it will be a remake or reboot of the franchise. Since Capcom has also said it plans on making more remakes and remasters of its games, we expect that a new Dino Crisis would more likely than not take the form of a remake of the original game.
If Capcom did decide to remake Dino Crisis, one has to wonder just how extensive such a project would be. It's possible that it would just have upgraded graphics, or maybe it will be a full-fledged remake in the vein of the Resident Evil GameCube remake or the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Fatal Frame
Nintendo co-owns the Fatal Frame franchise, and the Big N didn't go through the trouble of acquiring ownership in it to just let it squander. It's true that we haven't seen a new Fatal Frame game since 2014's Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water on the Wii U, but a new entry in the long-running survival-horror series could be announced sooner rather than later. In fact, the Fatal Frame series producer Keisuke Kikuchi recently revealed that he would like to make a new game in the series for the Switch. Kikuchi specifically pointed out how the Switch's unique handheld capabilities would work well with Fatal Frame's gameplay, so he already has some ideas for where the series could go in future installments.
Left 4 Dead
Valve hasn't produced nearly as many games as it used to in recent years, instead opting to focus on things like Steam and virtual reality development. However, Valve recently expressed a desire to return to traditional game development, sparking hope that we may see its big franchises return to the fold. While many will no doubt be hoping for some Half-Life 3 news, other Valve enthusiasts may be more interested in hearing about a potential Left 4 Dead 3.
Just as a new Dino Crisis game has been rumored for years, there have been many Left 4 Dead 3 rumors over the years as well. Nothing concrete has ever materialized, and many of these rumors have been based on debunked hoaxes. Even so, there's no denying the popularity of the Left 4 Dead games, and so we imagine that the series' comeback is more a matter of "when" than of "if." And with next-gen consoles on the way, now seems like the perfect time for Valve to release a Left 4 Dead 3 that takes full advantage of the new hardware.
While these three horror franchises may stand a better shot at coming back than many others, there are others we would hope to see. Perhaps the biggest horror game franchise we'd like to see come back from the dead is Dead Space, but as is the case with Silent Hill, chances of that seem pretty slim. EA closed Visceral Games, and the company has made no indication that it plans on returning to the Dead Space franchise anytime soon.
Besides Dead Space and Silent Hill, there are other horror game franchises that may never see new installments. But maybe if the horror games that do stand a chance at a comeback live up to expectations, EA and Konami may be convinced to revisit their own popular horror franchises.