Guillermo del Toro speaks out on Konami’s ‘scorched earth’ approach to PT cancellation

Film maker Guillermo del Toro has said he was surprised at the lengths Konami has gone to to remove PT from PSN.

Speaking to IGN, delToro described the publisher’s attempts to remove the game from PSN, and preventing consumers from re-downloading the demo if they already owned it as a scorched earth approach”. del Toro was attached to the project, alongside Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and Walking Dead TV show star Norman Reedus.

PT was released during last year’s Gamescom, and was revealed to be a teaser for a new entry in the Silent Hill series. It was cancelled earlier this month.

Last month, Konami removed the game from PSN, and has stopped people who already owned the game from re-downloading it. This seems to be the latest bout of an on-going conflict between Konami and the title’s creator Hideo Kojima.

This is alongside Konami’s decision to make mobile its primary games platform, and its seeming departure from the console gaming market.

Talking about the lengths Konami has gone to to remove PT from PSN, del Toro said: Honestly that’s what surprised me. It was a sort of scorched earth approach. It was not a gentle andambiguous cancellation."

He added: What we wanted to do with the game – and we were very much in agreement on this –was to take the technology and make it as cutting-edge as we could in creating terror in the house. The idea was very, very atmosphere-drenched.

But what made Silent Hill so great was that you had the atmosphere but then you a pay-off with a very active, very intense series of moments. We wanted to do some stuff that I’m pretty sure – just in case it ever comes back, which honestly I would love for somebody to change their mind and we can do it – but in case it comes back there was some stuff that was very new, and I wouldn’t want to spoil it.

Norman [Reedus, the Walking Dead actor who was attached to play the lead role] was super happy, Hideo was super happy, and so was I. I know there’s a petition going on the internet and it’s gathering signatures. I would add my signature to it, and hope that someone pays attention.”