9 years later, Guillermo Del Toro is still unhappy with Konami about PT and Silent Hills
Can you blame him?
To mark the ninth anniversary of the P.T. demo, Guillermo Del Toro has done what he often does best and shared a rather brazen tweet about the game, and it’s publisher, Konami.
P.T. was a demo for a fully-fledged Silent Hill game, Silent Hills, from Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro that was released in 2014. While this atmospheric demo was minimal, having you explore the same transforming corridor over and over again while the level of terror only increases, fans went absolutely doolally for it. When it was finally discovered that this was, in fact, going to be a Silent Hill game, the excitement was unreal. Finally, a good, modern Silent Hill game was coming. Until it wasn’t.
The full version of P.T. was canceled in 2015, shortly after the release of the demo. Due to conflicts at Konami, Hideo Kojima then left the studio once Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain was completed, and that was that. P.T. was left to fade into obscurity, slowly but surely becoming less accessible to new players as it was removed from storefronts.
It’s been nine years since the P.T. demo released, with The Game Awards tweeting out the anniversary of the urban legend of a game. Guillermo Del Toro quote tweeted the anniversary announcement with, “Ah… Konami… What sayeth thou? Irrumabo Konamitus.”
‘Irrumabo Konamitus’ can be translated from Latin in a number of ways, but it’s safe to say that Konami has left a sour taste in Guillermo Del Toro’s mouth. In this instance, Guillermo Del Toro appears to be saying ‘F**k Konami’, with Hideo Kojima retweeting Del Toro shortly afterwards.
While some have translated the Latin phrase as Guillermo Del Toro saying he’ll visit Konami, I think this is far from the case. Back when P.T. was canceled in 2015, there was a real uproar, and fans were far from happy with Konami for canning the project. Last year, on the eighth anniversary of P.T., Guillermo Del Toro tweeted "F.K." and it isn't hard, given this years new tweet, to work out what that must mean...
Ultimately, Del Toro's tweets certainly appear to echo those same sentiments that fans shared nine years ago, and continue to share now.
If there’s anything that all Silent Hill fans have in common, it’s that we’re all mourning the cancellation of Silent Hills, and the eventual loss of the ability to play the P.T. demo. Alas, we do have a Silent Hill revival to look forward to, with a Silent Hill 2 Remake on the way alongside multiple other spin-offs, and a new film.
But while Silent Hill fans do have some new media to highly anticipate, this only puts a bandaid over the P.T. shaped hole in many of our hearts. Silent Hills could’ve, and would’ve, been great. Irrumabo Konamitus!