In a series of Tweets across social media, the person responsible for delisting P.T. details the “fun” conversation they had with Sony about removing the teaser from the PSN store. In their words, “I wish it had gone differently.”
Table Of Contents
Never Be Game Over
Yesterday was the anniversary of P.T., the playable teaser for the canceled Silent Hills sequel, being released on the PlayStation store. It one of the more infamous examples of the dangers of digital distribution, the teaser would be removed from download a year later following a request from Konami. Fans of the demo have been begging the publisher to do something with the IP ever since, either by releasing a new Silent Hill or bringing P.T. back for download on the PSN.
After many years of silence, former Konami employee Pearl L opened up on Twitter about her role in getting the game listed on the store ahead of Gamescom 2014 and the eventual delisting it went through. While her account is now locked, making the tweets unreadable, VGC has archived most of them in an article. Pearl’s responses to fans don’t seem to be filled with malice for Konami, more just disappointment about what could have been.
What Could Have Been
Kicking things off, Pearl shared her role with Konami on Twitter. “Fun fact: since I was the 1P lead at the time at Konami, I helped get this product set up on storefronts, fake publisher and everything. 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.” When asked by a fan why the game was scrubbed from the PSN, she responded, “I say with this love, ‘because Konami.'” She then stressed how tough of a situation it was, but praised Sony’s handling of the matter.
Going further, Pearl stated this was the first time Sony had ever been asked to block redownloads of a delisted product. She said it was awkward having that discussion with the console manufacturer. “Awkward is right! We’d already gone thru a lot to get it set up, got a lost of operation exceptions. And then to add the request to block redownload?” That sounds like a tremendous headache and is something that Pearl wishes had concluded in a different manner. “Believe me, I wish it had gone differently too. It was definitely really fun to be plotting this secret cool thing for the fans… i’m super grateful I got to be a part of that in some small way.”
You can read VGC’s archive of Pearl’s comments here.
