Someone Bought The Silent Hill Domain From Under Konami's Nose
You had one job to do. You might think it would be easy to keep track of your big franchises and keep the websites updated. Apparently, that isn't the case for Silent Hill, and as the fires between this tormented town burn out, someone has pulled the rug from beneath Konami.
Alongside Metal Gear and Castlevania, Silent Hill is one of Konami's big three. Helping define the survival horror genre, Silent Hill had been a powerhouse of the gaming scene since its release in 1999. We'd like to point an emphasis on the had part of that sentence. Now, someone has bought the Silent Hill domain and is trolling Konami.
How Did Someone Buy The Silent Hill Domain?
Click to enlargeIf you head over to silenthill.com, you'll see that the homepage now includes a tweet from Artist Masahiro Ito. Only days ago, we covered how Ito said he "f*****g" hates that he designed Pyramid Head. This is a deep burn for Konami, with someone openly mocking the fact the domain lapsed.
In December 2019, the Silent Hill domain was up for sale and cost just under $10k. No one was quick enough to snatch it from Konami, but this time, someone has gobbled up the legacy of Silent Hill for an undisclosed sum. We don't know who the lucky owner is, but kudos to them for leaving Konami red-faced.
Over on Twitter, people are mocking Konami and the frankly baffling idea that it could let a legacy franchise like Silent Hill slip into the abyss. Someone wrote, "Konami. You know I love you, but it's time for an intervention," while another added: "I really miss Silent Hill, it's sad to see that Konami seems not to care about the franchise anymore, that they even let silenthill.com domain expire."
What's Going On With Silent Hill?
The fact someone else now owns silenthill.com isn't good news for the dormant franchise. If Konami wasn't willing to renew the domain, it hardly sounds like the developer is about to release a new game. Then again, as someone pointed out when the domain was up for sale in 2019, it had already sat stagnant since the early '00s, suggesting a lapsed domain isn't the end of the world.
At the moment, the last game to grace the series was Silent Hill Downpour in 2012, while plans for Silent Hills famously kicked the bucket in 2015. Last year, there was a flurry of rumours about multiple games, Kojima Productions taking over, or Konami starting the wheels all over again. Ultimately, no one knows what's going on with Silent Hill, and as someone makes a laughing stock of the franchise, it's another nail in the virtual coffin.