14 DAY TRIAL // Some Japanese companies, like Namco Bandai, are letting people go in bursts, but other gaming studios are losing employees without the management's consent. Akira Yamaoka, Silent Hill's producer since the third entry in the series, left Konami this December, after working with the company since 1993, but is now back on the horse and already working with another company. According to Famitsu, Yamaoka, along with Kazutoshi Iida, a freelance game designer, have both joined Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio responsible for titles such as No More Heroes or Killer 7.
Apparently, Grasshopper had had its eye on Yamaoka for some time, and, as soon as he became available, the studio headed straight for him. The studio's boos, Goichi Suda, admitted in an interview that, "I really love Yamaoka. Ever since I saw a video of Silent Hill 2 at the Tokyo Game Show nine years ago, I've always dreamed of working alongside him. That's why I thought I'd invite him over when I started hearing rumors that he left [Konami]."
As for Yamaoka's decision to accept Suda's offer, it looks like the interest was a mutual one. "It was a case of really good timing," Yamaoka told Famitsu. "I knew about Suda long before I met him; I saw Grasshopper as one of those few Japanese outfits whose games can appeal to an overseas audience. I had a chance to meet him in Los Angeles and we talked about this and that, and once we started discussing how we wanted to do something creative for a world audience, I was hooked on the company."
And while it's excellent news to hear, since this will probably mean that more great games will come from Grasshopper, we can't help but wonder what will happen to Silent Hill, now left without a guardian.
As for Yamaoka's current activity, he is composing music for some of Grasshopper's games at the moment, but he plans to use his "total sum of experience" in the creative process and take a more active role in title creation in the future. His first project is the one the developers are putting together for Electronic Arts, the mysterious title being created by Suda and Shinji Mikami, a former Capcom designer.