Silent Hill | |
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Genre(s) | Survival horror |
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Creator(s) | Keiichiro Toyama |
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First release | Silent Hill February 24, 1999[1] |
Latest release | Silent Hill 2 October 8, 2024 |
Silent Hill (Japanese: サイレントヒル, Hepburn: Sairento Hiru) is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four mainline video games in the series—Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, and Silent Hill 4: The Room—were developed by an internal group called Team Silent, a development staff within the former Konami subsidiary, Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo from 1999 to 2004.
The franchise is primarily set in the fictional town of Silent Hill, a place plagued by supernatural events, and follows various characters drawn to the town, where they encounter horrifying creatures, psychological torment, and mysteries tied to their own pasts.
The next three mainline games—Origins, Homecoming, and Downpour—were developed by other, mostly Western, developers and released between 2007 and 2012. The Silent Hill franchise has expanded to include various print pieces, two feature films, and spin-off video games. As of 2013, the game series has sold over 8.4 million copies worldwide.[2] Since 2022, Konami have embarked on a series of projects in the series including games Silent Hill: The Short Message, the 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2, and the upcoming Silent Hill f, with various spin-offs releasing during the two periods.
Most games are set in the series' eponymous fictional American town. The series is heavily influenced by the literary genre of psychological horror, with its player characters being mostly "everymen".[3]