A new Silent Hill game just appeared on a Korean rating site

After months of speculation, leaks, and all-around confusion, the future of the Silent Hill series has grown even more bewildering thanks to something called Silent Hill: The Short Message, which was recently rated by South Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee.

The rating has since been removed but was noted by Gematsu, which said that the publisher on the project was listed as Uniana, the publisher of multiple other Konami games in Korea. The rating did not include any mention of platforms, however.

What makes the rating noteworthy is that it's the latest in a long and frankly baffling string of Silent Hilll rumors and leaks that still haven't added up to anything. A rumor of two new Silent Hill games first surfaced in January 2020, but a few months later Konami shot it down; fans then convinced themselves that the Silent Hill-like horror game Abandoned was in fact a new Silent Hill, despite developer Blue Box Studios repeatedly insisting that it is not.

Despite the lack of anything concrete, the sheer persistence of the rumor makes it believable that something's brewing, and the obvious demand for a new Silent Hill makes it seem inevitable. The is also the first time the name "The Short Message" has appeared online prior to this rating. For now, there's no sign of Silent Hill: The Short Message on other ratings websites, including the ESRB, PEGI, and the Australian Classification Board, so we'll wait to see what happens next—in the hopes of speeding things along, I've reached out to Konami for comment and will update if I receive a reply.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.