Tomm Hulett, Silent Hill producer, leaves Konami

Tomm Hulett, producer behind such Konami titles as Contra 4, Rocket Knight, and the last five Silent Hill games has left Konami. After working over six years with the company, Hulett has moved on to work at WayForward Technologies as a game director. Hulett recently worked with the developer as a producer on the latest Silent Hill game, Silent Hill Book of Memories. After noticing the change on his LinkedIn profile, I asked for confirmation and received it. He did not give me any further details aside from the departure being of his own volition.

Often single-handedly blamed for all of the faults in post-Team Silent developed Silent Hill titles by vehement fans of the series, Hulett no doubt has had a difficult time being the face behind the latter Silent Hill titles–whether he has had complete creative control over them or not. With the most recent entry in the Silent Hill series being a dungeon crawler RPG, negative feedback from fans has been high.

Despite Book of Memories being an enjoyable title, its difference from the survival horror roots of the series has caused it to to receive a lot of backlash. Along with Konami’s botched development of the Silent Hill HD Collection, and the rushed, buggy nature of Silent Hill Downpour, the series has had a bad year. Whether these issues with the past games was cause for Hulett’s departure is unknown; the state of the Silent Hill series is also unknown. Konami’s treatment of the Silent Hill series, and some of their other titles has sparked the interest of many, including myself . With minimal marketing and the release of unfinished games, Konami hasn’t exactly been the model publisher as of late.

After having interviewed Tomm on several occasions and being a fan of most of his Silent Hill titles, this news was a big surprise. He has always come off as an extremely passionate fan of the series, and a lot of the attacks against him from angry fans felt misplaced, as his role as a producer does not grant him control over every facet of the series as many would like to believe. As with any developer whose work I follow, I wish him the best on his future projects. WayForward will no doubt be a much more humble environment for him.