How would you like to pay real life money to watch a shitty “interactive” Netflix series where your casting vote could dictate what happens next? What was that? You don’t want to watch a shitty TV series allegedly based on Silent Hill? Well that’s too bad.
Silent Hill as a franchise has seemingly been dead for over an entire decade at this point, which just makes it ripe for the picking for Konami to cash in on the nostalgia factor by milking the franchise in one massive hit.
Konami as a company needs no introduction, they are one of the most recognizable figures in the video game industry which is absolutely hilarious when you consider the fact that they’ve all but abandoned the video game development scene following the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
They’re a company that everyone hates, their treatment of Hideo Kojima was obvious for all to witness and when he finally escaped their clutches, saying goodbye to the Metal Gear franchise with it, there was nothing left for Konami in the AAA development market, so imagine my surprise when Konami seemingly came out of hibernation to announce several projects centered around the Silent Hill franchise back in October 2022.
Three individual game projects in addition to a remake of Silent Hill 2 and a movie, dubbed Townfall, “F”, Ascension and Return to Silent Hill.
Seeing as how Konami as a company doesn’t need profitable video game ventures to remain afloat, given how the company essentially prints fat stacks of cash by preying upon Japanese consumers with pachinko gambling machines, Konami reported revenue figures to the tune of ¥72.6 Billion Yen ($510 Million USD) with an overall profit of ¥17.2 Billion ($121 Million USD) with its casino ventures their second most profitable segment.
I had low expectations regarding the treatment of the Silent Hill franchise by Konami who have no high profile game developers on their payroll, the first of these new entries that would eventually release would be Silent Hill: Ascension, a self described “streaming series”.
Is it a game? Is it a movie? Well actually it’s neither, Silent Hill Ascension is Konami’s way at reinventing the psychological horror genre through the utilization of the Silent Hill IP in a supposed “game” that’s more or less like watching a shitty web-series but through the lens of a Twitch stream interface.
Naturally, nobody wants this pile of shit and it only begs to question just how fucking awful the rest of these Silent Hill “games” are going to end up being.
This is a real screenshot of the “game” in question, Silent Hill Ascension. Konami not only thought this was a good idea but actually paid real money to “developers” to actually bring their imagination to life over at least one and a half years.
Silent Hill Ascension is an “interactive” Twitch stream, there’s no other better words to describe it, “players” can tune in live to watch this abomination unfold before their very eyes, developed by Genvid Entertainment, the series is a Bad Robot productions, the lovely Californian film production company who brought you many “great” hits like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Star Trek Beyond.
Over the next 16 weeks, viewers of this alleged game can decide the fates of characters, and influence how the story actually branches out and unfolds with key choice prompts that will be continued the following day.
Silent Hill Ascension will air every night, with new episodes that debut at 9 p.m. EDT. During these live broadcasts, viewers will have the opportunity to cast real-time votes, utilizing Influence Points to influence decisions.
So basically it’s a massive fucking cash grab, a new revolutionary form of gambling as the CEO of Genvid, Jacob Navok explained that the more “Influence Points” you possess, the greater your influence has on the voting.
If you’re a peasant, you’ll have to grind out daily puzzles to generate IP so that you can vote and influence the story unfold, or rather if you’re absolutely crazed regarding a Silent Hill story made by woke Californian millennials, you can purchase a season pass.
Yeah, that right, a goddamn season pass for a fucking Netflix series, $20 is all you’ll need to cover six months of “content”, offering you replayability in the vain of allowing you to watch the different outcomes of the series.
So what’s the point of voting if you can just watch all of this garbage for twenty bucks in the first place? I don’t really know actually, however what I do know is that Konami turned the Silent Hill franchise into a fake streaming service where in return you, the consumer can spend real life money in exchange for worthless shit tokens to influence a garbage story made by sensitive Californian feminists.
In a way this shit is purely gambling, it’s a monetized Twitch stream, the allure is that your contributions can help sway and dictate what happens live on screen on the following episode, the only way to contribute is to not only watch live but to throw away IP “points” which can either be earned by completing puzzles or you can simply buy them outright.
The more points you hold, the more influence you have over the outcome. So if you’re the biggest soyboy around and you’re dumb enough to give these fuckers money, essentially only the whales verdict will truly matter in the end, not the “players” who are stuck completing puzzles for points.
But since it’s monetized thankfully the people involved decided not to actually host this rubbish on online streaming platforms, because you can only access Ascension via its dedicated website alongside Google and Apple app stores, so now we cannot actually see how many simpletons are “playing” this shit as it goes live, considering the consumer reception Konami and Co have garnered from this rubbish reveal I hardly doubt more than a few hundred people at most will be watching this dogshit.
Konami genuinely thought that it would be a spectacular idea to open out the Silent Hill franchise after countless years of pure silence with an interactive streaming service, the colossal failure of Silent Hill Ascension certainly plays a bigger role here, Konami don’t need the games industry and the games industry certainly can continue forward without Konami meddling with its affairs, I’d rather these franchises die out entirely than be reduced to Liberal rubble.
We got a good glimpse of exactly how Konami are treating its supposed “fans” as they continue to revive and butcher one IP after another, with their horrid Metal Gear Solid Master Collection re-release being artificially locked to stupid low framerates and resolutions as opposed to what was naturally playable on older generation consoles.
And now this. An interactive television series butchering the name of Silent Hill for profit. This will surely butcher any fan who had actual hope for a resurgence with either Silent Hill “F”, “Townfall” and the Silent Hill 2 Remake, alongside Metal Gear Solid Delta.
