Silent Hill's Yamaoka Joins Grasshopper Manufacture

Veteran Silent Hill composer and producer Akira Yamaoka has joined Goichi "Suda51" Suda's Grasshopper Manufacture studio. The news comes from the latest Famitsu magazine, reported by consumer site 1UP. According to the report, Yamaoka will start out composing music, beginning with the "action-horror" project also featuring the support of Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, announced late in 2008 with EA Partners backing. Eventually, though, Yamaoka hopes to use his "total sum of experience" in game development in his new role -- for which Suda51 approached him just as soon as he heard Yamaoka would be leaving Konami after more than a decade and a half. "I really love Yamaoka," said Suda51 in the report. "Ever since I saw a video of Silent Hill 2 at the Tokyo Game Show nine years ago, I've always dreamed of working alongside him. That's why I thought I'd invite him over when I started hearing rumors that he left [Konami]." Yamaoka called it "a case of good timing". "I knew about Suda long before I met him; I saw Grasshopper as one of those few Japanese outfits whose games can appeal to an overseas audience," he said. "I had a chance to meet him in Los Angeles and we talked about this and that, and once we started discussing how we wanted to do something creative for a world audience, I was hooked on the company," Yamaoka adds.