Silent Hill 5 coming to next gen

The fifth episode of the gruesome Silent Hill series was confirmed today, but is being designed with next generation console hardware in mind.

During an interview to be published later this week, chief designer of the game Masashi Tsuboyama admitted that the title is already being planned for next generation machines, although Konami has yet to decide which one.

Asked if there would be a further Silent Hill game after the release of The Room, out next month on PS2, Xbox and PC, Tsuboyama-san first clarified rumours that it would not be called 'Shadows', but was happy to confirm that there would be ongoing adventures in the series.

"One website said we are creating a fifth [Silent Hill] called Shadows - we don't know where they got their information from; obviously it's not Shadows that we are creating, but we are creating the next one.

"We're not sure which hardware we will put [it out on], but [it will be] on the best one, be it PS3, be it Xbox 2... It won't be on the current consoles," he confirmed.

The news therefore means that The Room will be the last game in the series for some time, with next gen machines not expected to be released until some point in 2006.

Meanwhile, responding to criticism that The Room is too action-focused at the expense of puzzle solving, he retorted: "I don't take that as a negative. That was the concept all along."

Check back later this week for the full interview, or read our in depth review of The Room here.