RUMOR: Microsoft Saves Silent Hills [Confirmed False from MS!]

[Shifty Geezer]

MS won't own Kojima. Konami doesn't own Kojima and can't sell his brand. Wikipedia says the movies have crap ratings. Although they have grossed over a hundred million, production costs eat into profitability. It's hardly a strong movie brand, and most of the money from them has already been obtained. Hence MS would have the rights to make another SH movie which'll be lucky to turn $50 million in profit.

There's no money in the SH property, not directly nor in brand. The real value will be pissing off gamers and creating an internet shit-storm if this is true and the Sony fanboys are up in arms! Maybe such a massive troll is worth a billion to MS? Maybe the Tomb Raider troll excited them into pursuing more, and the lack of Minecraft anger only saw them go after something else?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Despite the ridiculous price, Minecraft is extremely popular and visible and has a major Internet presence, plus it's not platform exclusive. MS may never get their money back directly from that, but it has wider value. Silent Hills is a niche title and unlikely to shift boxes in a big way, so it'll never make back lots of money. If SH could make billions, Konami wouldn't be selling it.

And this is the bewildering thing. Microsoft aren't a private company, they are publicly traded and are accountable to shareholders. The Mojang acquisition makes no sense because there's no clear way to recoup the investment unless they sell it on.

MS won't own Kojima. Konami doesn't own Kojima and can't sell his brand. Wikipedia says the movies have crap ratings. Although they have grossed over a hundred million, production costs eat into profitability. It's hardly a strong movie brand, and most of the money from them has already been obtained. Hence MS would have the rights to make another SH movie which'll be lucky to turn $50 million in profit.

Konami, not Kojima, own the trademarks to Silent Hill. Even if they recruited Kojima, they couldn't make a Silent Hill together without Konami's approval.

But Silent Hill has the movies and all, while Minecraft doesn't (although it is used for educational purposes and government projects, i.e. English government built the entire British isles with Minecraft) and according to IGN, they need to sell 1,6 million sales at 60$ to break even. Judging from your post it looks like they are overpaying. If that's so, the value I see in it is the name of Kojima and the movies.

It was Ordnance Survey who produce the Minecraft version of the British Isles, they are a fully self-funded Agency and they produced the Minecraft map using existing data.

I don't understand the math of 1.6m sales at $60 for Microsoft to break even. That's $96m dollars which is 4% of what Microsoft paid. This is atrocity flawed by Minecraft doesn't cost $60 and never has and, arguably, the vas majority of people who were interested in Minecraft bought it before Microsoft bought Mojang, By my reckoning, Microsoft need to sell 125 million copies (from purchase) to recoup the purchases price.

 

[Nesh]

Okay for the most part, but I am not sure what you mean by unhealthy competition...

I mean, the events were like this -excuse me if I am wrong-: the project was definitively cancelled, it was a multiplatform game that was to be shown on the PS4 as most games these days and a demo (PT is not Silent Hills afaik, but it was related) was published. The demo got chopped because Del Toro and the development team couldn't complete the game, no money. Kojima is unemployed now because Konami bullies him, and he is very talented --well, I never likd the lengthy cinematics of his games, but the guy is very talented nonetheless.

This leads me to believe that Kojima is going to be in the E3 alongside Phil Spencer.

edit: I guess that @ThePissartist shares a similar opinion and I see from reading your post where he is coming from, 'cos I was not sure about the core meaning of his post, it sounded cryptic to me.

They didnt say anything about money. They simply said that it will not happen and that the contracts have expired (most likely forcefully if they were signed directly between Kojipro and them). The only explanation we got was Kojima's departure from Konami. Not about financial ability

Regardless your post is irrelevant to my argument. It is unhealthy due to what preceded in the gaming community because of P.T which is what MS exploits opportunistically.

 

[AzBat]

If the rumor is true(and I'm not saying it is), I think it's funny that people think it's like Microsoft is the only company sitting at the table in these kind of deals. You can bet that other companies in the industry were involved too. Plus, they are likely the reason how the price was driven up into the billions. Microsoft didn't just go up to Konami & say "here's 2 billion dollars for the Silent Hill IP" & Konami said "sure!". Konami would have seeked offers from other potential buyers. So don't look at Microsoft as the bad guy here. They're the not the only ones involved.

Tommy McClain

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Konami, not Kojima, own the trademarks to Silent Hill. Even if they recruited Kojima, they couldn't make a Silent Hill together without Konami's approval.

My comment was a reply to Cyan saying MS would then own Kojima. Buying Silent Hill doesn't mean buying the brand Kojima which remains independent. So MS would have only Silent Hill, not Kojima and brand value-add (which ain't worth that much anyway!).

 

[Nesh]

If the rumor is true(and I'm not saying it is), I think it's funny that people think it's like Microsoft is the only company sitting at the table in these kind of deals. You can bet that other companies in the industry were involved too. Plus, they are likely the reason how the price was driven up into the billions. Microsoft didn't just go up to Konami & say "here's 2 billion dollars for the Silent Hill IP" & Konami said "sure!". Konami would have seeked offers from other potential buyers. So don't look at Microsoft as the bad guy here. They're the not the only ones involved.

Tommy McClain

Of course there are. Has anyone said that only MS does such deals? If there is only 1 or thousand of companies that do this, it doesnt make anyone any less bad. So I dont understand what is your point

 

[AlNom]

So, Microsoft is paying billions for Silent Hill? Billions ... Not millions ... Billions.

Sounds like something Dr. Evil would do.

 

[Deleted member 86764]

The game really has potential to be incredible. Anyone with first-hand experience of it might have really seen the potential and considered buying it because of that potential. Most of us have tried P.T., I know how good that was... Imagine months and months more work on it.

People are forgetting one huge point about this: Guillermo del Toro. The guy has made several truly classic films. Now put all of that into a game... It could be amazing.

If any of this is true and Microsoft is buying the license, then I seriously doubt it was ever cancelled in the first place. Why would they pay >1b for a cancelled project? They wouldn't. They're not that stupid.

I'm pissed off because this was a game that I was really looking forward to, I played the demo and loved it. Microsoft have paid for the privilege to stop me from playing the game because I've a PlayStation.

Edit: as someone that's enjoyed all previous Xboxes this feels totally underhand to me.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It shouldn't feel anything until confirmed!

 

[Deleted member 86764]

No smoke without fire. These types of leaks usually true out to be true.

There's a lot of relating information that makes it very believable indeed.

 

[Deleted member 86764]

If true; I don't buy that Micosoft have 'saved' the project. No one in their right mind would spend that amount of money for a cancelled project. It's a fallacy.

 

[MrFox]

"saves"

 

[BRiT]

"saves"

Not my choice of words, but that's the title of the original video posted.

 

[MrFox]

With Konami going full retard, it could be true...

These milking IPs have been saved against all them pesky original IPs they could have made instead.

Maybe billions in JPY though, that's like 10 million usd.

 

[Shortbread]

If Sony had a wasteful spending war-chest, and was falling behind in worldwide sales, then I could see Sony pulling the same move. This is just business and nothing personal.

But yes, I do agree it's a little dirty (yet humorous) if the rumor is true. However, I'm pretty sure Sony will do something just as "grimy" on getting under MS or XBOX fans skin.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Maybe billions in JPY though, that's like 10 million usd.

That'd make a lot more sense!

 

[Shortbread]

That'd make a lot more sense!

Maybe. But that figure seems very (very) low compared to the potential sales that PS4/XB1 (2 million copies or more) could have generated now and especially later (sequels) if Konami kept Silent Hills.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Assuming Microsoft has bought the IP, how is that dirty? Konami cancelled the game and stopped production. The game wasn't going to come out at all. Konami doesn't want it anymore, so they sell it. What part of that is dirty business?

 

[MrFox]

Could be timed exclusive masquerading as a full exclusive, as usual. Wouldn't be expensive, and Konami's reputation can't really go any lower now. Might as well cash in.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Maybe. But that figure seems very (very) low compared to the potential sales that PS4/XB1 (2 million copies or more) could have generated now and especially later (sequels) if Konami kept Silent Hills.

I'm trying to look up the Silent Hills sales history, and things weren't looking to good. Silent Hill: Downpour looks like it was the last title. I've never even heard of it. Vgchartz (I know they suck) has it at 740,000 copies. The previous title seems to be equally underwhelming in sales. It's not exactly like it's a big brand anymore.