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Silent Hill: The Short Message Breaks Another Milestone

The PlayStation 5 exclusive free-to-play horror experience, Silent Hill: The Short Message, has surpassed three million downloads. Previously, bit breached 2.5 million back in May.

Developed by Hexadrive in Unreal Engine 5, Silent Hill: The Short Message puts you in the shoes of Anita, who’s told she can’t leave the rundown apartment complex she’s trapped in until she finds the ominously labeled “it.” Unfortunately, you’re not alone, roaming the building is Sakura Head, a humanoid entity that has cherry blossoms all across its head.

On launch, it faced mixed reviews, but we suspect many people who played it were just happy to get another Silent Hill game after such a long dry spell. The last proper game was the infamously delisted P.T. back in 2014.

The future is at least looking a little brighter for the future of the IP, with Bloober Team working on a Silent Hill 2 remake slated for later this year, as well NeoBards Entertainment partnering with Konami on Silent Hill F and No Code’s Silent Hill spin-off, Silent Hill: Townfall.

Square Enix Marks Games “Successes” Or “Failures,” No In-Betweens

For Japanese game maker Square Enix, games are “marked successes” or “marked failures,” meaning there are no in-between for overarching game dev company. With the new quarter, it plans on overhauling game development.

In the recent earnings report (via PSLS), it was revealed that with this new game dev overhaul, which would see a change in what studios take responsibility for developing entries of major IPs for it. Within, Square Enix discussed “monetization methods” like free-to-play and subscriptions, giving “greater diversity of business models outside the confines of traditional one-off sales.”

It also noted new games are “marked successes” or “marked failures,” without really giving us a true means to know which is which. We can just assume it’s talking about sales, though, and save the trouble of expecting it’s talking about a community, as fans continue to gather around whatever new news pops up about its major IPs like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

“Monetization methods such as free-to-play, microtransactions, and subscriptions have also given rise to a greater diversity of business models outside the confines of traditional one-off sales. As such, the consumer game market continues to grow. New releases tend to be met with either marked success or marked failure as players throng to a handful of major titles.”

What do you think? What would mark a game a “success” or “failure” in your book? Let us know below! 

Free-To-Play Disney Dreamlight Valley Canned “For The Foreseeable Future”

Gameloft’s Disney Dreamlight Valley was once poised to launch as a freemium game, but it seems plans have changed. At this point, it’s unclear if this decision was spearheaded by Gameloft itself or perhaps by Disney’s request.

In a blog post (thanks Xbox Nerds), the team announced that as its official launch looms, it’s decided to remain a paid game “for the foreseeable future.” Gameloft will continue to offer free content updates and maintain its microtransaction currency, which will stay “optional” and “fair.”

The base game launching on December 5 will cost $39.99, but more expensive packages are available that come with more stuff like extra Moonstones and Season Pass access.

What do you think? Is the magic gone without the free-to-play aspect? Are you still gonna get into Disney Dreamlight Valley? Let us know below!