Silent Hill publisher Konami expands Osaka studio and raises base salary of workers

Konami is relocating and expanding its Osaka studio, which it describes as its "major production centre," to a new location in Osaka Umeda Twin Towers South.

The Japanese publisher said the move will allow it to deliver "sustainable growth in the next 50 years," and noted the new studio has been established with a "creators first" mindset.

As one of the company's most prominent studios, the new location has been fitted with the motion capture and audio equipment required for major development projects.

Konami has also started construction on a new R&D venture called Konami Creative Front Tokyo Bay.

That new facility is currently scheduled for completion in 2025, and will apparently allow the company to strengthen its efforts in "health and productivity management."

Konami said it wants to create a "healthy and vibrant workplace" for employees and believes the Tokyo Bay opening will help it achieve that goal. With that in mind, the company has also "substantially raised" the base-salary of workers as of March 2023.

The news comes a few months after Konami announced it would be revitalising the dormant Silent Hill franchise. Laying out its plans for the horror series in October 2022, the company revealed it's currently working on a reboot of Silent Hill 2 and two new projects, Silent Hill Townfall and Silent Hill F.

A movie spin-off, Return to Silent Hill, and an interactive live streaming series called Silent Hill Ascension are also in the works.

Speaking to IGN earlier this year, Konami producer Motoi Okamoto also confirmed the company is keen to work on more Silent Hill projects with other developers, imploring them to pitch their ideas to the Japanese studio.