Several weeks ago my contact at Konami Japan contacted me with some startling news. Now, at last, I’m finally able to exclusively reveal that – after sixteen years at the company – Akira Yamaoka has left Konami.

It would appear that he has left the company entirely rather than moving to another international division. As you would expect, there has been no formal confirmation from Konami, so right now this is an unconfirmed rumour – albeit one generated from a pretty reliable source.

To date there’s no news yet as to what Yamaoka plans to do next. Since leaving Konami he has been in the States and is now currently in Europe, seemingly on vacation.

I have no idea what this means for Silent Hill. I’m intrigued as to how Konami will proceed as I – and no doubt many others – find it very hard to envisage any SH game without Yamaoka’s trademark sound. I like to think that I have an open mind, but this is sad news, indeed. Part of me hopes that it’s a hoax!

What do you think?

Update 02/12 – a contact at Konami USA has confirmed that the story is “not wrong” so we can now confirm that it’s definitely not a hoax.