The rumors surrounding in-development Silent Hill projects continue to grow all the more complicated and surprising. The latest rumor has to do with the possibility of Kojima Productions potentially working with Konami to develop a new Silent Hills game. The heart of the rumor isn't that Kojima will be doing Silent Hills, though, rather, it's that Kojima is likely to pass on developing Silent Hills in favor of making another project.
The new rumor comes from Dusk Golem, also known as Aesthetic Gamer, who is best known for his recent reliable Resident Evil and Capcom rumors. Stemming off of recent rumors about a collaboration between Sony and Konami, Dusk Golem hints that Kojima Productions was pursued via Sony to take on one of two Silent Hill projects. Dusk Golem states Kojima may not pursue it at this time, however, saying, "I highly expect Kojima is going to pass on the Silent Hills offer."
As for why Kojima would pass on on Silent Hills, which would certainly have a lot of excitement built up for it, it's seemingly very simple – Kojima received a better offer. "Let's just say there's another deal he's probably going to end up taking instead of this," is how Dusk Golem characterizes the situation. Kojima has apparently received multiple funding offers for his next project and Dusk Golem sees Kojima preferring at least one much more than the Silent Hills offer.
Note that this may not be related at all to the games Kojima is considering. He may prefer Silent Hills as a game but is still taking the other project for financial reasons. Dusk Golem has previously talked about the Sony and Konami Silent Hill project being developed by Sony Japan Studio's financials. He's said that while the new Silent Hill has a bigger budget than the team's past works, including Siren and the Gravity Rush games, it's still meager compared to Sony's biggest PlayStation titles.
Perhaps Kojima's been offered a major blockbuster budget for a new IP, or maybe he's been offered control of a major IP. It could be Sony, it could be Microsoft, or it could even be Tencent offering funding for Kojima's project, for all anyone knows. But if Kojima was posed the question of choosing either Silent Hills or this second project and passed on Silent Hills, that's a very exciting idea.
The Kojima news comes off the back of rumors regarding Konami approaching Sony regarding two potential Silent Hill games. The first is now said to have been in development for over a year and a half at Sony's Japan Studio, led by Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama and his Gravity Rush team. That project is said to include both the Silent Hill franchise's composer, Akira Yamaoka, and its artist, Masahiro Ito. Silent Hills is seemingly the second Sony and Konami project, but clearly the status of that is up in the air.
As with all unofficial and anonymously sourced rumors, it's best to take them with a grain of salt until an official Silent Hill announcement has been made.