The Silent Hill 2 remake trailer that appeared during Sony's State of Play showcase in January did not make the best possible impression. Fans on Reddit described it as "rough," "wooden," and "straight out of SH Homecoming, which is a PS3 game." Among the people who didn't care for it was, somewhat unexpectedly, Piotr Babieno, CEO of Silent Hill 2 developer Bloober Team, who said in an interview with inwestorzy.tv that the trailer "does not reflect the spirit of the game."
As reported by Eurogamer Poland, (via DeepL), Babieno said Bloober Team is "not responsible for the marketing" of the game, and instead pinned the video on publisher Konami, who "is entirely responsible for this."
"Certainly this trailer does not reflect the spirit of the game," Babieno said. "It is not the spirit of either what it used to be or what we are creating now. We try to reflect this romantic vision of the game, which debuted 22 years ago. We think that when players see real gameplay, the real game, they will evaluate it in a completely different way."
Associate editor Tyler Colp shared similar sentiments in his thoughts on the trailer: It was more action-focused than fans of the series might have expected, but it's also a small slice of a work-in-progress game. "There's a lot more Silent Hill 2 than what you see in the trailer, however, so it's way too early to tell where it'll land for diehard fans," he wrote. "But as these things usually go, reactions will probably be pretty split."
It was a good prediction: While the overall response to the State of Play video was tepid, some users on Reddit defended it as an "in development" trailer, and decent-looking on its own merits, if not quite what committed fans were hoping for. One redditor, SnooSquirrels1275, put forward one eminently practical explanation for the lacklustre video: "It could be that they are just shit at trailers."
The Silent Hill 2 Combat Reveal Trailer has 34,000 "likes" on YouTube, which isn't bad, and 30,000 "dislikes," which isn't good.
This isn't the first time Bloober Team has pointed the finger at Konami for whiffing on the Silent Hill 2 front: In response to questions about the status of the game in November 2023, the studio tweeted that "Konami is the publisher of the game and communication is definitely part of their job." Babieno's more pointed comments may have ruffled some feathers, though: The interview was removed from the inwestorzy.tv channel earlier today.
For now, while work on Silent Hill 2 is progressing, it still doesn't have a release date. I've reached out to Bloober Team for comment on Babieno's statement, and the removal of the inwestorzy.tv interview, and will update if I receive a reply.
