A new Silent Hill leak has been DMCA'd by Konami, suggesting that the leak was, at least in part, genuine. Pretty much immediately after the four images were uploaded to the leaker's Twitter account, they were hit by a copyright strike, ironically lending them credence.
What was in this new Silent Hill leak?
Ever since reports that Konami could revive Silent Hill started to circulate, the future of the franchise has been a subject of intense speculation. Now, trusted leaker Dusk Golem, who also goes by AestheticGamer on Twitter, has revealed what seems to be trustworthy information about a potential new Silent Hill project. In a tweet, Dusk Golem shared four images of a Silent Hill project apparently from 2020. The leaker accompanied the posts with hints about the storyline, mentioning the names Anita and Maya alongside "SMS messages". Almost as soon as those images were posted, however, Dusk Golem was hit with a DMCA claim which turned out to be sent by Konami, thus suggesting that the leaks are legitimate.
Dusk Golem says that they have more materials they're not sharing, that this potential Silent Hill project is a collaborative effort between more than one studio, and that legendary Silent Hill artist Masahiro Ito is definitely involved. If this is true, it lends further credence to the images being real; one of them prominently depicts a monster that looks to be inspired by cherry blossoms, a concept Ito expressed interest in using back in 2018. It's worth noting that as Dusk Golem points out, these images are from 2020; as such, it's possible the project they depict has been canned since then, or the project has been significantly changed in the two years since. However, given that the images are being shared now, that they were so quickly taken down by Konami, and that Dusk Golem's source appears to point to this project still being in development, we can reasonably assume at least one Silent Hill project is currently being worked on.
What do the leaked images tell us about this potential Silent Hill game?
We're not going to post the Silent Hill leak images here in order to avoid getting hit with a DMCA claim ourselves. We can, however, describe them to you. One image depicts a girl's face with "I hate myself" written across her forehead and parts of her face seemingly peeling away to reveal further handwritten notes. Three more images show scenery: a cluttered table, a room full of junk, and a corridor covered in sticky notes saying things like "pervert" and "fat bitch", with Ito's cherry blossom monster in the final image. That last image also contains a fun Easter egg, as pointed out by Twitter user Blind//Drunk: a reference to graffiti artist King Robbo, who feuded with fellow artist Banksy in the 2000s. Some have also suggested that the message could read "Bloober Team", given that we know Bloober is working on a game with Konami, but the resemblance to the graffiti is much clearer.
These images could point towards the narrative direction for this Silent Hill project. It could be focusing on social media, for example, and the hateful things that are often said in DMs or public tweets. Alternatively, these messages could be a reference to a single individual and their mental health struggles. Intriguingly, however, Dusk Golem says that people's guesses about the plot of this Silent Hill game are incorrect, and that their guesses and the actual plot "are entirely separate things". In addition, Dusk Golem says they're holding back on revealing certain aspects of the plot. The leak apparently contains full narrative spoilers, and Dusk Golem is concerned they would ruin some "serious surprises" by revealing those spoilers if the project comes to fruition. It looks like we're going to have to wait a little longer for the official Silent Hill reveal, if one is indeed forthcoming. We'll bring you more on this as soon as we get it.
