Horror popularity grows amid global crises, says Bloober Team

Bloober Team intends to build a franchise on par with Silent Hill and Resident Evil.

Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno believes that the horror genre becomes particularly in demand during periods when the world faces serious problems. In his opinion, wars, climate change, and economic hardship heighten public fears, which is why horror movies, books, and video games resonate more strongly with audiences.

The head of the studio working on the remake of the original Silent Hill shared this in an interview with IGN.

The head of Bloober Team also discussed the studio's approach to horror game development. According to him, the team has specialized in this genre ever since the release of Layers of Fear in 2016. At the same time, the developers strive to listen to the audience, take criticism into account, and use player feedback to improve their projects.

Babieno noted that the studio constantly analyzes its own mistakes and evaluates whether their next game will truly be a step forward both for the team itself and for its fans. Otherwise, the developers do not want to spend four years creating a project that offers nothing fundamentally new.

The executive also touched upon Bloober Team's journey from the mixed reception of its early games to collaborating with Konami and working on the Silent Hill 2 remake. According to him, the team decided to focus on the quality of their own projects and stop paying attention to external noise and criticism.

Currently, the studio continues to work on the remake of the first Silent Hill. In addition, Project H—a new game from the team that created Cronos: The New Dawn—is in development. However, the project is still in the final stages of pre-production, so it will likely be quite a while before its full reveal.

Babieno describes Project H as a major step forward compared to the studio's previous games. The developers intend to maintain the recognizable hallmarks of their approach while presenting them in a completely new format. According to the executive, players can expect a fresh experience that will nevertheless remain familiar to Bloober Team fans.

In the long run, the studio hopes to secure an even more prominent place in the horror industry. Babieno even suggested that over time, Bloober Team might have room for a third major intellectual property in the horror genre—alongside such renowned series as Resident Evil and Silent Hill.