Tragedy strikes: video games have lost Guillermo Del Toro, maybe forever.
The legendary director of films like Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim has sworn off game development after a string of cancelled releases. It sounds like he’s got a sense of humor about it though. As he told Shacknews, “I have proven to be the albatross of video games.
“I joined THQ, and THQ goes broke. I join Kojima, and Kojima leaves Konami. I have decided, in order not to destroy anyone else’s life, I have decided I will never again get involved in video games. Otherwise, I’ll join someone and his house will explode, or something.”
Del Toro’s bad luck with games began in 2012 when his horror game InSane was dropped from production by a struggling THQ. THQ declared bankruptcy in late 2012, though the trademark is still active under Nordic Games.
Then, Del Toro tried again, collaborating with Hideo Kojima on a new Silent Hill game, simply called Silent Hills. Silent Hills was one of those things that was almost too good to be true. It wasn’t “announced” so much as it crept into your home in the form of a cryptic “playable teaser,” called PT. PT was an incredibly creepy experience, even moreso because until someone beat it no one knew what it was.
PT was an experience that left players excited for more.
If Silent Hills had been as creepy-confusing as PT, it would have been a hit and maybe reinvigorated an flagging franchise. We’ll never know, because Kojima left publisher Konami, Konami pulled PT from the PlayStation Store, and Del Toro said that his participation on the project was no more.
“I can gladly say that we are friends,” Del Toro said of Kojima. “I love his work and I will continue learning from him as a friend. But I am not… if I join another video game, World War III will start.”
As sad as it is to see Del Toro retreat back to blockbusters, he did tell Shacknews that if game developers want to make games based on his film work, that’s a-ok.
He’ll just keep his cursed hands far away.
