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Silent Hill 2 remake is Bloober Team's first game in a transition to 'mass-market horror'

Reportedly, Layers of Fear was the last game of an era for the developer as it transitions to what it's calling 'Bloober Team 3.0'.

TJ Denzer

June 28, 2023 1:45 PM

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With Layers of Fear behind it, Bloober Team is reportedly entering a new era. As the studio continues to work towards the launch of its Silent Hill 2 remake, it’s also walking away from its usual psychological horror game fare. In a recent interview, Bloober Team said that Silent Hill 2 would be the opening chapter of what the developer has dubbed “Bloober Team 3.0”: a shift towards “mass-market horror” games.

Bloober shared the details of this transition in a recent interview with Engadget where the studio discussed Layers of Fear, Silent Hill 2, and the studio’s future. Reportedly, Bloober Team has gone through several phases since its formation. Layers of Fear was the bookend of what was internally named “Bloober Team 2.0”. Bloober Team 3.0 aims to step a little further away from the niche psychological horror games that the developer has been launching since the first Layers of Fear in 2016. With the planned launch of its remake of Silent Hill 2 later in 2023, Bloober wants to move deeper into mainstream horror titles.

“This year is like closing the era of making psychological horror games,” studio co-founder Piotr Babieno said of the transition. “Right now we are going into Bloober Team 3.0, making mass-market horror… We focused on the story, we focused on the mood, we focused on the quality of graphics and music, but we didn’t put a lot of attention on the gameplay mechanics. It wasn’t our target. But we decided that there was a ceiling that we couldn’t break if we did not deliver something fresh, something new.”

Babieno claims Silent Hill 2 will be the first major example of the studio’s new direction. As it works hard on getting the remake ready, stay tuned for more details such as a concrete release date. Silent Hill 2 is still on track for launch sometime in 2023.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.