Update 14/08/2022 22:16 GMT: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Pearl L was a Brand Manager. Pearl L was an employee at Konami who requested that Sony delist PT.
The person who requested that PT should be pulled from distribution recently wrote about the experience, noting how they wished everything had “gone differently.” PT was released by Konami at Gamescom back in 2014 without any kind of build up or hype, simultaneously surprising and terrifying fans of the horror genre.
Hideo Kojima noted the eight year anniversary of PT earlier this week, prompting a former employee at Konami, Pearl L, to share their experience. Pearl L claims to have been responsible for setting up the release of PT as well as ultimately pulling the plug.
“Fun fact,” Pearl L said. “Since I was the first party lead at the time at Konami, I helped get this product set up on the storefronts, fake publisher and everything. And I was the one who had to call Sony and ask them to take it down and block redownloads. That was a super fun conversation.”
PT was a playable teaser for what later wound up being a canceled entry in the Silent Hills franchise, a game spearheaded by Kojima. The title was released under the false name 7780s Studio. PT forced players to work together in order to solve a series of puzzles which revealed its true nature as a demo. Kojima went on to leave Konami, effectively killing the project. PT was removed from the PlayStation Store shortly afterwards.
Pearl L answered several different questions about PT from the large community of players. When it comes to why the game was removed from the PlayStation Store, Pearl L was a little bit evasive, noting only that “I say this with love, because Konami.” The developer on the other hand remarked that it was a “tough situation” for everyone at the company. “Sony as always was fantastic to work with. It was a tough situation all around,” Pearl L said.
“It was a ride! Honestly, not a great situation all around. I really felt for Sony who had to bear the brunt of dealing with the situation.” Pearl L added that “it was definitely an interesting lesson in power and the importance of picking your battles in relationship management.”
When a player asked if getting Sony to remove the game was at all awkward, Pearl L responded that “awkward is right! We’d already gone through a lot to get it set up and got a lot of operational exceptions. And then to add the request to block redownload? More engineering workarounds. It was exciting to see people hype about it and see the work pay off, but in a way, also not.”
According to the developer, PT was the first game that Sony had been asked to remove and prevent redownloads. “Believe me, I wish it had gone differently, too. It was definitely really fun to be plotting this secret cool thing for the fans,” Pearl L pointed out. “It was amazing to see everyone come together to try to figure out the experience and see them come away with so much love for it! I'm super grateful I got to be a part of that in some small way.”