Early Friday morning, Kojima Productions posted a message to Twitter. Within hours, the rumor mill was on fire. Not only did the tweet hint explicitly that an announcement is coming next week, but there are also less explicit hints that it might be Silent Hill-related. Before anyone gets too excited, there's still a lot left for Kojima Productions to confirm before any assumptions can be made. Nevertheless, it's a very exciting time to be a fan of Kojima.
Kojima Productions head of communications Aki Saito is the one who posted the tweet in question. The tweet's text reads "Sorry to be silent everyone! I've been really busy lately... I think i can say more soon about what we are going to... #KojimaProductions". While some of Aki's context is lost in translation, the photo attached to the tweet helps clarify one thing. It's a photo of Aki sitting at a desk with a notepad in front of him. Zooming in shows that he's written "Next week!" on the notepad.
The Silent Hill connection is much less obvious and is based on considerable speculation. Fans are assuming that since the "Next week!" comment is subtle and somewhat hidden, that perhaps other messages are hidden in the post. The first bit that drew fans' eyes was the word "silent" in the tweet. The second is the pencil that Aki is holding. If looked at upside-down, the brand of the pencil is "Pyramid." Fans believe this could be a reference to Pyramid Head, Silent Hill's most notorious villain.
There's no overt indication that Silent Hill is part of the teaser. Using the word "silent" in the tweet is definitely awkward, but that could definitely be due to the translation from Japanese to English. Pyramid just happens to be a not-uncommon pencil brand, so that is likely just a coincidence. Anything is possible, though.
The good news is that fans won't have to wait long to find out exactly what Kojima Productions is teasing. Aki's reveal is clearly going to be made next week. Whether that reveal is related to Silent Hill, something Death Stranding related, or maybe something completely unrelated to video games.
Expect news from Kojima Productions in the first week of February 2020.