Konami explains why Silent Hill: The Short Message was a free-to-play game

In recent weeks, one of the biggest surprises in the video game industry has been the release of Silent Hill: The Short Message immediately and completely free of charge. Many gamers wondered if the game would have some kind of pay-per-service model or other features usually found in free games. But this was not the case, and in an interview with the prestigious Famitsu magazine, the game’s producer and director, Mokai Okamoto, revealed the reason behind the decision to release the game for free.

According to Okamoto, the development and release of The Short Message took into consideration several factors, including the fact that the Silent Hill saga has been dormant for more than a decade. There is interest in the remake of the second installment and other classic games, but new players may not know or be familiar with the franchise. That’s where Silent Hill: The Short Message was seen as an opportunity to reach a new audience, and that is one of the reasons it was released for free. Also, if it had been a paid game, the development of the game would have been superior, as they would have had to add a combat system as well as multiple endings.

Silent Hill: The Short Message, a game that leaves no one indifferent

Silent Hill: The Short Message has been considered from the beginning as a “research and development” for Konami. An experiment with which the company wanted to draw different conclusions, and to date it has already been downloaded more than a million times, attracting the attention of a significant number of players. Despite everything, the reception of the game has had contrasting opinions and does not leave anyone indifferent.

In the review made by our colleagues in Spain, it is emphasized that “The Short Message wanted to be a kind of PT, but the only thing it successfully copies from it is the first-person camera. It is not scary, lacks interesting puzzles and has one of the most ridiculous car chases in history. Despite its good intentions, it is as flat and predictable on a narrative level as it is on the controls. It works neither as a walking simulator nor as a horror game. And all of this by drawing a veil over the fact that Silent Shill’s name is all that remains. There is very little to salvage from this forgettable experiment.”