TODAY: Remedy didn't exactly start out writing melodramatic epics — Naughty Dog faces scrutiny for crunchy The Last of Us 2 development — COVID-19 prompts Niantic to make changes to Pokémon Go

Return to Silent Hill

Silent Hill soft reboot on the way?

Horror gaming website Rely on Horror claims there are two new Silent Hill games in development.

Their report states that one of the new games is a collaboration with Sony's Japan Studio, while the second one is an attempt to resurrect Kojima Productions' cancelled Silent Hills.

Sony supposedly pitched the project to Konami, but it's unclear if Konami is involved in the actual development. Art director and creature designer Masahiro Ito is also apparently involved.

• The P.T. demo, also known as Silent Hills, generated a lot of buzz after appearing and then disappearing from PlayStation Store
• Art director Masahiro Ito, composer Akira Yamaoka and writer Keiichiro Toyama are said to be involved with the reboot

Sony tries to patch things up: Sony is allegedly trying to help reconcile Kojima Productions and Konami after Hideo Kojima's less-than-amicable departure. Maybe they're hungry for more Metal Gear Solid? In any case, let's hope the Silent Hill reboot is actually happening!

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Which Remedy protagonist was portrayed by Matthew Porretta?

• Max Payne
• Alan Wake
• Jack Joyce
• Paul Serene

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today's issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Daily Fact

Remedy's Humble Beginnings

Remedy might be a household name now, but their success didn't exactly come out of nowhere.

The Finnish studio is best-known for their action games, strong characters and cinematic storytelling, but their very first game was a top-down vehicular combat game.

Death Rally was published by Apogee Software for MS-DOS in 1996 and was developed in a basement. Apogee supported Remedy as they started work on their second game, which ended up being called Max Payne – and the rest, as they say, is history.

It's quite interesting that a company most famous for telling stories with their games started out making a game about cars shooting at each other.

Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today's fact.

Naughty Crunch Culture

Former Naughty Dog developer comments on studio’s crunch culture

Kotaku recently published an exposé detailing the gruelling crunch Naughty Dog has sustained to launch The Last Of Us 2 in time and talked to former Naughty Dog animator Jonathan Cooper about crunch.

Cooper said he doesn’t have any awful crunch tales of his own but that he's aware of how some Naughty Dog employees have struggled. For example, one gameplay animator ended up hospitalised due to overwork to get the September demo ready in time.

• Cooper worked at Naughty Dog for five years and contributed to Uncharted 4, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and The Last of Us Part II
• Naughty Dog withheld Cooper’s final paycheck until he signed an NDA preventing him from talking about the company’s production practices

Cooper’s cutting comments: “ND's linear games have a formula and they focus-test the shit out of them. While talented, their success is due in large part to Sony's deep pockets funding delays rather than skill alone. A more senior team would have shipped TLOU2 a year ago.”

Pokemon Go Goes Home

Niantic makes it easier for Pokemon Go players to catch Pokemon

Pokemon Go has been updated with some changes that make it considerably easier to catch Pokemon.

Developers Niantic hasn't really mentioned the COVID-19 outbreak, but told Polygon that the changes were made in response to "the current global health situation”.

According to a new blog post, the changes go live today and will remain in effect until further notice. PokeStops will drop Gifts more frequently, eggs only require half the hatch distance when placed in incubators, more Pokémon will appear in the wild and you can purchase a bundle of 30 Incense for 1 PokeCoin.

• Incense now lasts for an hour
• The changes will most likely stay active for at least 2 weeks

Here’s what Niantic had to say: “We also encourage players to make decisions on where to go and what to do that are in the best interest of their health and the health of their communities”.

What Else Happened Today?

• Remedy reveals Control DLC with a short video. The expansion is named The Foundation and will launch on March 26th
• Prince of Persia meets For Honor in the latest Ubisoft crossover event. The first chapter of the ‘Blades of Persia’ event begins on March 12th, and the second chapter unfolds on March 19th.
• A remastered version of Westwood's Blade Runner named Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition has been announced by Nightdive Studios and will launch on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch later this year
• COVID-19 delays EGX Rezzed and a new date and venue will be announced at a later date. Tickets remain valid.
• COVID-19 case at Nintendo of America in Redmond, just after Nintendo announced that employees in Washington and California can work from home

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Neon City Riders for Nintendo Switch

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Neon City Riders is available on the Nintendo eShop for $19.99 or £17.99, and we've got a code to hand out today; note that today's giveaway is available to North America only.

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Previous Winners:

• Kilian León, Spain - Kings of Lorn: The Fall of Ebris (PS4)

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Which Remedy protagonist was portrayed by Matthew Porretta?

Answer: Alan Wake!

Remedy likes to bring cast members from their old games into new ones, and Alan Wake's voice actor returns in Control.

While Alan Wake is a pretty weird game, Control is arguably even weirder and Matthew Poretta portrays a scientist rather than a horror novelist this time – no big deal for an actor with experience from stage, film and television.

Porretta is not the only Alan Wake actor, though: He may be the voice, but Finnish actor Ilkka Villi was the model and live action actor. Villi had to lip sync to Porretta’s performance for the live-action video, and he also played Alan Wake's evil counterpart Mr. Scratch. Think it's hard to lipsync your TikToks? Try doing it for hundreds of lines across two whole videogames!

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Ken McKown, Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Christian Vaz and Jamie Davey.