Publisher Konami and development studio Bloober Team have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Under the agreement, the companies will jointly develop “selected contents” and exchange know-how.
The Medium (2021)
Bloober is known for developing Layers of Fear (2016), Observer (2017), and Blair Witch (2019). In January 2021, psychological horror game The Medium came out that Bloober developed and published.
Back in February, Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno shared the following: “We’ve been working for more than a year on another gaming project, another horror IP, and we’re doing this with a very famous gaming publisher. I can’t tell you who. I can’t tell you what the project is, but I’m pretty sure when people realize we’re working on it, they will be very excited.” This led to a new wave of speculation that the publisher in question might be Konami, with the horror IP being, naturally, Silent Hill. This was never confirmed, though.
Konami has traditionally been against giving its IPs to third-party developers. However, the situation might have changed after Konami unsuccessfully launched Metal Gear Survive and Contra: Rogue Corps. And now, with the strategic cooperation agreement in place, Bloober is no longer just a third-party studio. So who knows, who knows.
According to Hideki Hayakawa, Representative Director, President at Konami Digital Entertainment, the agreement will help the parties brace for certain “significant changes in the business environment.”