Silent Hill 2 translator Jeremy Blaustein is asking Konami to credit his work on the original Silent Hill 2 game in the remake, saying “its the right this to do”.
Blaustein says that while he does not “expect or seek any financial compensation”, “I do strongly feel that giving me appropriate credit for my role is the right thing to do”.
Shortly after the remake was unveiled earlier this week, Blaustein retweeted Konamis announcement, saying: “Cool! And they will, once again, use the SH2 English script that I wrote/translated (oh, directed too) completely by myself and I will get zero compensation for it and there will not be tens of thousands of people on Twitter outraged on my behalf. Maybe I should make a video?” The latter sentence refers to a dispute between Konami and Silent Hill 2s voice artists around the time Silent Hill HD Collection was released back in 2012.
“My duties on the original were as follows, irrespective of what my official crediting said,” he explained in a further statement to GamesRadar+.
Cool! And they will, once again, use the SH2 English script that I wrote/translated (oh, directed too) completely by myself and I will get zero compensation for it and there will not be tens of thousands of people on Twitter outraged on my behalf. Maybe I should make a video? https://t.co/g4pXoiaKl4
— The Tao of Blau (@JeremyBlaustein) October 19, 2022
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“I translated every single word of the Silent Hill 2 game. There were no other translators. I directed the voice over work. All of it. I arranged the auditions, led them, and was one of about four to five people who made the decisions on which actors to go with. My voice in those matters was generally agreed to since none of the Japanese staff were capable of judging the actors due to their lack of English ability. I directed the dramatic performances in the motion capture sessions.”
“I collaborated with the [Silent Hill] team and [Hiroyuki Owaku] in particular on a near-daily basis during the translation,” Blaustein added. “As you know, there was no Japanese VO because it was mostly aimed for a Western audience. That testifies to the importance of the script that I wrote.”
At the time of writing, Konami has yet to publicly respond to Blausteins comments or request to be credited for his role.
After what feels like an eternity of leaks, Konami officially revived its long-dormant Silent Hill series with a flurry of activity earlier this week, starting with remake of horror masterpiece Silent Hill 2, which is being developed by Bloober Team for PC and PS5 as a timed console exclusive.
Bloober Team – the studio behind the likes of The Medium, Layers of Fear, and Observer – has been rumoured to be involved in a Silent Hill revival as far back as June last year, when it announced a partnership with Konami to create a new game. Rumours that the project would be a Silent Hill 2 remake began to coalesce following a series of leaks earlier this year.
Blausteins comments follow a similar storm around compensation for voice acting. In the wake of original Bayonetta voice actress Hellena Taylor releasing a series of videos claiming she was only offered $4k to work on the third game, fans turned on Hale for accepting the role instead. She has since asked for kindness, tweeting “lets just be good to each other”, prompting Platinum Games to publicly give its “full support” to Hale.