PT for PC, the recreation of the famed Silent Hills demo that took on an all-too-brief life of its own a few years ago, has been shut down. Qimsar, the creator, said in a statement on Game Jolt that just ahead of a planned update that would have seen the last of the animations put in place, he was contacted by Konami and told that he had to pull the plug.
"I got a phone call that I was expecting at about 5 am from someone who worked at Konami. He essentially told me that he was very sorry for being the bearer of bad news, but I would have to take down my remake," Qimsar wrote. "I was told that he and many other people at Konami saw and really liked my remake, but legit due to legal issues that were out of his or anybody else’s control really, he had to ask me to take down my remake project."
Qimsar agreed to take the game down immediately, and at that point the conversation took a turn. The Konami rep told Qimsar that PT on PC is very popular around the studio, and that as compensation it would send him some merchandise and games. More importantly, however, the rep also offered him an internship: "It hasn’t been made super official or anything, but a freakin’ internship for me with Konami in which I would do stuff with Konami US, EU, and Japan," they wrote.
"Internships tend to turn into jobs fairly often and for a 17-year old who isn’t even a senior in high school just yet, to get this for the very first game project that he’s ever worked on with 6 hours of prior UE4 experience (and a fair amount of Unity experience (35 hours give or take) but that’s irrelevant :P), that’s pretty good."
Qimsar said he was disappointed that the mod had to be taken down, but also expressed a degree of relief. "I feel like a giant burden (even though I’m the one who chose to do this remake, nobody made me but still) has been lifted off of my shoulders because I can just let it go. I no longer have to worry about if I’m going to get sued or anything because what’s done is done," he wrote. And even though it won't be available to the public, he also pledged to finish the game, "just to show it to my dad to make him extra proud."
One of the replies to Qimsar's statement expresses doubt that he actually spoke with Konami, and I wonder a little bit too if maybe someone is messing with him: A cease-and-desist is no surprise, but an internship offer is an almost unbelievably positive outcome. I've reached out to Konami to confirm that this is in fact legit—and I really hope it is.
Thanks, Videogamer.
