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Team Silent

Company type	Division
Industry	Video games
Founded	1996; 28 years ago (1996)
Defunct	2007; 17 years ago (2007)
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Hiroyuki Owaku (writer) Akira Yamaoka (sound director) Masahiro Ito (art director)
Products	Silent Hill
Parent	Konami

Team Silent was a development team within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET), responsible for the first four games in the Silent Hill franchise by Konami released from 1999 to 2004. Later titles were developed by non-Japanese companies such as Climax Studios, Double Helix Games and Vatra Games. According to a Silent Hill: Homecoming artist, Team Silent was ultimately disbanded by Konami itself, because Konami wanted Western developers to make the games. KCET was merged into the parent company in April 2005.

Key members of Team Silent include:

• Keiichiro Toyama: Director of Silent Hill. Left to join Japan Studio (Project Siren) in 1999 and created the Siren series of games.
• Masashi Tsuboyama: Background designer of Silent Hill, director of Silent Hill 2, art director of Silent Hill 4: The Room. Left Konami to join Good-Feel.
• Kazuhide Nakazawa: Director of Silent Hill 3. He later joined Kojima Productions.
• Suguru Murakoshi: Drama director of Silent Hill 2, director and scenario writer of Silent Hill 4: The Room. He later joined Kojima Productions.
• Hiroyuki Owaku: Scenario writer of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, co-writer for Silent Hill.
• Masahiro Ito: Background and creature designer of Silent Hill, art director and creature designer of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3.
• Akira Yamaoka: Series sound director; producer of Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room. Left Konami to join Grasshopper Manufacture.
• Gozo Kitao: Executive producer of Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3.
• Akihiro Imamura: Lead programmer of Silent Hill, producer of Silent Hill 2, sub-producer of Silent Hill 4: The Room.
• Takayoshi Sato: CGI Creator of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. Left Konami to join Electronic Arts in 2003, subsequently worked at Virtual Heroes, Inc. in 2007, and later joined Nintendo in 2012 as a visual producer.

Akira Yamaoka played a major role in the Silent Hill film adaptation by overseeing and approving specific aspects of the movie throughout its production. Some of the original members (as led by Toyama, director of the first Silent Hill game) went on to create the Siren series, which has a similar atmosphere to the Silent Hill franchise.

In 2017, when asked if Team Silent would ever reunite, Yamaoka said he was not against the idea, but also said that "it's hard to say because everyone has evolved, and maybe the mindset has changed as well. Also, the technology and the games industry as a whole has changed as well. Even if we got back together I'm not even sure we could do something great so it's very hard to say at the moment".

References

1. Sato, Takayoshi. "My Resume". SatoWorks. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
2. Winston1 (August 10, 2018). "Let's clear this up: Team Silent was making a Silent Hill 5, and it (and they) got canned by Konami". ResetEra. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
3. "E3 2001: Silent Hill 2 Interview". IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. May 17, 2001. Archived from the original on April 4, 2002. Retrieved December 26, 2010.
4. "IGN Top 100 Games 2007: 97 Silent Hill 2". IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. 2007. Archived from the original on November 22, 2007. Retrieved December 26, 2010.
5. Tom Goldman (January 18, 2011). "Silent Hill Artist Claims Konami Disbanded Team Silent | The Escapist". Escapistmagazine.com. Archived from the original on January 21, 2011. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
6. "Notification of Business Conducted at the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders" (PDF). Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. February 22, 2005. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 18, 2011. Retrieved December 26, 2010.
7. "Silent Hill creator discusses how he joined the game biz and why AAA horror is 'difficult' to fund". Polygon.com. October 30, 2013. Archived from the original on August 14, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
8. "E3 2002: Interview with Hiroyuki Owaku, Akira Yamaoka and Kazuhide Nakazawa (IGN)". Silent Hill Memories. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
9. Ito, Masahiro (June 14, 2010). "Nobu bbs: scenario writers". GMO Media, Inc. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
10. IGN
11. "Interview: Akira Yamaoka explains Grasshopper jump". April 2, 2010. Archived from the original on May 20, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
12. "Q&A: Konami's Akihiro Imamura". GameSpot. May 17, 2006. Archived from the original on September 10, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
13. "Silence Is Golden: Takayoshi Sato's Occidental Journey". Gamasutra. August 25, 2005. Archived from the original on July 15, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
14. Donnelly, Joe (August 29, 2017). "Akira Yamaoka would 'love' to see Silent Hill revived, is open to Team Silent reunion". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2022.

• Konami
• Silent Hill
• Japanese companies established in 1996
• Japanese companies disestablished in 2005
• Video game companies established in 1996
• Video game companies disestablished in 2005
• Video game development companies
• Defunct video game companies of Japan