Silent Hill 2 Developer Bloober Team Says It Wants to Evolve From Making “Sh*tty Games”

Bloober Team, the company most recently behind Konami’s remake of Silent Hill 2, says that it’s ready to move on from some of its “sh*tty games” of the past. Prior to SH2 releasing earlier this month, there was quite a bit of skepticism from horror fans that Bloober Team could pull off remaking one of the most beloved games of all-time. Fortunately, many were proven wrong as Bloober Team was met with rousing acclaim from fans and critics alike for its work on Silent Hill 2. Now, with this achievement under its belt, those at the developer are looking toward improving even further with its next projects.

Speaking to GameSpot, members of Bloober Team opened up a bit about their trajectory in the wake of Silent Hill 2 launching. Just recently, Bloober unveiled Cronos: The New Dawn, which is a new IP from the studio that’s again rooted in horror. Rather than being skeptical of Cronos in the same way that fans were of Silent Hill 2, though, Bloober Team director and producer Jacek Zieba said that he’s already seen a turnaround in perception thanks to the success of the new remake.

“It was tough for those couple of years before [Silent Hill 2‘s] release,” Zieba said. “We made it. Bloober made it. And now, it’s very good spirits inside [the studio.] We want to show what we can do on our own, how we can evolve our ideas.”

Despite wanting to evolve further, Zieba still knows that Bloober’s strength lies in its ability to create horror experiences. This is something that the studio has done almost entirely since 2016 when it released the original Layers of Fear. In the same way that it moved on from its games of the past prior to Layers of Fear, those at Bloober are viewing the company now at another point of evolution where it can put previous projects that might not have been well-received in the rearview mirror.

“We want to be a horror company,” Zieba added. “We want to find our niche, and we think we found our niche, so now we just–let’s evolve with it. […] And how that happens is more complex, but it also happens organically in a way, like with [2016’s] Layers of Fear, people in the studio were like, ‘Okay, we made some shitty games before, but we [can] evolve.’”

For now, it remains to be seen if Cronos: The New Dawn will be met with the same praise as Silent Hill 2. Luckily, interested players won’t have to wait that long to find out as Cronos is due out at some point in 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.