Looking back at the early 2000s, Konami's Silent Hill franchise was easily one of the biggest gaming properties in the entire world. The blockbuster horror franchise centered on an eerie town filled with creepy pyramid-headed demons and monstrous mannequins was a critical and commercial success, with Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, 4, and eventually PT all quickly becoming iconic staples of video game culture.

The series became so iconic, in fact, that it even spawned numerous movies and comic books in its wake, with Silent Hill quickly transcending the world of video games to become a beloved horror property in its own right. Alongside its simultaneous success with the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Konami had cultivated a second flagship IP that was quickly becoming one of the biggest names in the horror genre.

Cut to 2020, and, aside from a handful of controversial Pachinko machines, Silent Hill lies entirely dormant. Mainly due to the cancellation of Kojima's highly-anticipated Silent Hills back in 2015, the franchise slowly faded away, with fans disheartened after losing the monumental promise of Kojima's vision and Konami seeing more money in arcade machines that fully-fledged video games. However, It appears that might not be the case for much longer, with a new leak claiming that Konami is looking to restore Silent Hill through two new major entries to the series.

RELATED: Every Silent Hill Game Ranked From Worst To Best (According To Metacritic)

For those who didn't see the report, it seems Aesthetic Gamer (a notorious leaker known for sharing credible insider information on Resident Evil) discovered that two new Silent Hill games are on the way, with Konami allegedly looking to bring the franchise back from the dead. The first would be a soft-reboot of the series that would stick closer to the traditional Silent Hill games and the other would be a 'choose your own story' adventure game in the vein of Until Dawn or Telltale's The Walking Dead. The leaker also revealed that Konami asked for Silent Hill pitches from other developers, meaning it's likely the company has outsourced both titles to other development teams.

It's no doubt an exciting revelation for franchise veterans, but more importantly, it's an exciting revelation for horror buffs in general. After all, this is currently the best time for Silent Hill to make its comeback, both for reasons relating to the franchise itself and the survival horror genre as a whole.

For one, old school horror games have been seeing a renewed resurgence in popularity over the last year alone. Resident Evil 2's 2019 remake might have ostensibly seemed like a title that was custom built for fans of the original PlayStation 1 classic, but it went on to become one of 2019's biggest surprises, even managing to score a Game Of The Year nomination at the tail end of last year. More importantly, it kickstarted a major demand for the return of old school survival horror games. Players raved about the claustrophobic atmosphere of roaming Racoon City's hallways, the frantic tension of managing resources mid-battle, and the exhilarating fear of being stalked by the towering Mr. X. It became such a massive success that Capcom rushed Resident Evil 3 into development as soon as possible, having it slated for release just over a year after Resident Evil 2 to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the game.

But what does that have to do with Silent Hill? Well, if there's any series that came to define survival horror, it was Konami's incredibly successful flagship horror franchise. Alongside the likes of Resident EvilSystem Shock, and Fatal FrameSilent Hill one of the key games to truly cement the survival horror genre, with the first and second games, in particular, showing how unnerving subtle sound design, a haunting atmosphere, and claustrophobic level structure could be. With some overhauls to how it looks and plays, a Silent Hill revival could slot into the same niche that Resident Evil is currently occupying now, especially with fans clambering to see video game horror return to its more survival-oriented roots.

Regardless of the new craze for survival horror, players are also more desperate than ever to see modern horror games that offer something deeper than cheap jump scares or chase sequences, and Silent Hill feels like the perfect franchise to fill that gap. The franchise's long history with haunting gameplay and psychological scares means that it could appeal to fans looking for a truly unique horror experience, with the game potentially using the immersive nature of the medium to mess with the player's head.

Many of the leaked gameplay details surrounding Silent Hills are definitive proof of the franchise's potential to be something much deeper than a simple horror game, with the sequel supposedly sending real-life text messages to users as they played the campaign. It's a pure example of how diverse and interesting the world of Silent Hill has the power to be, with its focus on psychological horror meaning developers can deliver an experience that truly seeks to deliver something wholly different and substantial.

Speaking of Hideo Kojima, it must also be said that his work on the franchise has meant that, despite it lying dormant for so long, there's still a ton of excitement surrounding a potential Silent Hill return. PT is, after all, often touted as one of the best horror games ever made, and that was merely a small taster of what the creator of Metal Gear had lined up for his vision of the franchise.

While a Silent Hill return without PT might've been a questionable financial decision, the excitement surrounding Kojima's ill-fated adaptation means the franchise could come back tomorrow and still get a ton of invested interest, with or without the esteemed director. Looking at the far-reaching popularity of PT alone shows that Kojima helped attract more attention to the franchise than ever before, and that extra fan investment will no doubt equate to massive sales when Silent Hill does eventually return. Who knows, Kojima is supposedly moving on to a brand new horror game, so perhaps one of the developers supposedly contacted by Konami about making a Silent Hill reboot was Kojima Productions?

RELATED: Norman Reedus is Glad Silent Hills Didn't Get Released

Even without Kojima on board, Silent Hill has had such an extended break that - if Konami really is looking to try something entirely new with the franchise - there'd be far more leniency towards experimenting with its formula. While many people will no doubt want to see a Silent Hill that attempts to modernize the somewhat cumbersome, claustrophobic, and tense nature of the franchise's first handful of games, what PT has shown longtime fans is that sometimes trying something entirely new can completely reinvigorate a franchise.

The first-person perspective that Kojima brought to the forefront was an entirely new lens on the story of Silent Hill and showed that the series still worked without the often awkward tank controls and combat that lay at the forefront of all four of the original games. After all, with a world as open to interpretation as Silent Hill, the ways a developer could go are almost endless.

kojima productions konami silent hill rumor

With so few of the big names that worked on the franchise originally still at Konami as well, it makes sense that a new lens on the franchise might be the best way to go. Whether that's following something closer to the new over-the-shoulder shooter gameplay of the Resident Evil remakes or perhaps sticking to the idea of a moral choice adventure title similar to Until Dawn, there will be far more acceptance towards trying something new now the game has been out of the public conscience for so many years. After technically skipping an entire console generation, it's easy to imagine that fans aren't going to have as many expectations as to what Silent Hill should look like in 2020, meaning Konami can resurrect the game in whichever way they choose.

Overall, Silent Hill has so much potential in the current climate of video games that it would be a shame not to see it make some form of return. While Konami's track record for reboots hasn't exactly been stellar, hopefully, its decision to potentially outsource the project will mean fans finally get to go back to an authentic rendition of the classic horror franchiseWhether that's with Kojima, some of the members of the now-disbanded Team Silent, or an entirely new developer on board, now is indeed the perfect time for Silent Hill to make its long-awaited comeback.

MORE: Konami 'Listening' to Silent Hill Fans, Considering New Game