Konami’s decision to entrust Silent Hill 2 Remake to Bloober Team wasn’t a random pick. In a recent post on X, producer Motoi Okamoto shared insight into why the indie horror studio was chosen for the project, emphasizing the importance of specialized knowledge in game development.
According to Okamoto, game studios seeking development partners often prioritize deep expertise in a specific genre over general game design knowledge. This principle guided Konami’s decision to evaluate Bloober Team’s past work and determine whether their experience aligned with the vision for Silent Hill 2 Remake.
Before taking on the remake, Bloober Team had already built a reputation in psychological horror with titles like Layers of Fear, Observer, and The Medium. While their games often blend elements of adventure and puzzle mechanics, their mastery of unsettling atmospheres and player-driven tension made them an ideal candidate for revitalizing Silent Hill 2’s psychological horror.
However, Okamoto acknowledged one major hurdle: Bloober Team had little experience with action gameplay. Since Silent Hill 2 relies on survival horror combat as a key gameplay element, this raised concerns. But Konami believed the studio could overcome this challenge, and Bloober Team rose to the occasion.
The remake introduces a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective and modernized combat mechanics while preserving the frantic, resource-scarce nature of the original game.
Okamoto also touched on the paradox of requiring highly specialized experience for outsourced projects, pointing out that every studio has to start somewhere. He sees indie development as a way for new studios to gain the necessary expertise and used Bloober Team as a prime example of how smaller developers can break into high-profile projects.
No matter how broad a game design expert’s knowledge is, they won’t be hired to work on a fighting game if they have no experience developing fighting games. The same goes for horror. But then, with companies requiring such genre-specific experience, you realize that everyone has to start out as a novice for the given genre at some point. Nowadays, indie development has become the way to overcome that.
With Silent Hill 2 now available on PS5 and Steam — and another Konami collaboration already in the works — Bloober Team has proven its ability to handle classic horror franchises. Whether their next project is another remake or an original title, it’s clear they’ve earned their place in the genre.
