A Konami Insider Offers Clarity on P.T.’s Removal
Meet Pearl L. She’s a ex-employee of Konami, heavily involved in the teaser for the now-cancelled Silent Hills: P.T. The short experience left a massive impact on people who played it, and left behind a lot of “what ifs” around a future Silent Hill title. P.T. was the brainchild of Hideo Kojima, who after years of work, had a falling out with Konami. While exact details on this breakup are hard to come by, Konami’s more recent practices and the sheer number of disgruntled employees leave little room for speculation.
Pearl was a major figure in P.T.’s enigmatic release, being listed under a fake studio name, for instance. This role also put her in an awkward position when the powers that be decided to pull the plug.
“Fun fact: since I was the [first-party] lead at the time at Konami, I helped get this product set up on the storefronts, fake publisher and everything,” she wrote on Twitter. “And I was the one who had to call Sony and ask them to take it down and block redownloads. That was a super fun conversation”.
According to the staffer, P.T. was the first time Sony had ever been asked to delist and block redownloads of a video game on its digital store.
“Believe me, I wish it had gone differently too,” she responded to a fan. “It was definitely really fun to be plotting this secret cool thing for the fans. it was amazing to see everyone come together to try to figure out the experience and seem them come away with so much love for it! i’m super grateful I got to be a part of that in some small way.”