The person responsible for putting PT onto the Sony storefront – as well as having to take it back off again – has spoken about the situation for the first time.
Pearl Lai, who was Konami’s first-party lead at the time, took to Twitter to talk candidly – and diplomatically – about the time the free-to-play Silent Hills teaser was controversially pulled from the Sony store eight years ago yesterday (12th August).
“Fun fact: since I was the first-party lead at the time at Konami, I helped get this product set up on the storefronts, fake publisher and everything,” they tweeted (thanks, VGC).
“And I was the one who had to call Sony and ask them to take it down and block redownloads. That was a super fun conversation.”
https://twitter.com/jadepearli/status/1558158515042000897
When asked if it had been an “awkward” u-turn, Lai added: “Awkward is right! We’d already gone through a lot to get it set up, got a lot of operational exceptions. And then to add the request to block redownload? More engineering workarounds. It was exciting to see people hype about it and see the work pay off! But in a way also not.”
A commenter who works at Sony added: “I remember these times. Pearl was always staying late to work on these projects. I also remember how we were baffled how it was solved in a day when Kojima expected months.”
Lai also talked sympathetically about the affect the removal had on Sony and Konami customer service representatives, who she said “already had a tough time as it was”.
Eight years on, and the interest in PT and Silent Hills is as strong as its ever been. Bloober, the developer behind the Blair Witch games and The Medium, struck a deal with Silent Hill publisher Konami last year. Ever since, rumours it’s working on a new Silent Hill game have been swirling, and even alleged concept art has leaked from a supposed Silent Hill game that may be set in Britain.
Numskull recently unveiled a new range of Silent Hill collectables, kicking off with the Bubble Head Nurse and what looks suspiciously like Silent Hill 3’s Heather…
