It would seem that the P.T. demo may finally be done for. Reports online are saying that Konami has issued a new patch to the Hideo Kojima directed demo that renders it unplayable. P.T. was taken off the PlayStation Store in 2015 following internal conflict between Kojima and Konami executives.
Reddit user pupperscupper a new patch for P.T. left the game unplayable. The patch was supposedly released a few days ago, and is slowly rolling out to PS4 systems. Many in that Reddit thread were skeptical, and said that the game was still working for them. Another Reddit thread from the r/silenthill subreddit was submitted five days ago, with the same problem. User PopulusTrichocarpa said they were unable to play the P.T. demo anymore, and included a screenshot of the application information.
Their game was updated on October 22, 2018 and is now listed as being “ineligible” to be started. Konami has not issued a statement or any other information regarding the P.T. demo update. A thread on ResetEra said P.T. was deleted from the poster’s PS4 after closing the game.
Konami released P.T. during Gamescom 2014, as a playable teaser for the upcoming Silent Hills series reboot. Silent Hills was set to be a collaboration between Kojima and film director Guillermo del Toro, starring The Walking Dead‘s Norman Reedus. The demo was widely received well as a masterfully crafted thriller, with complex puzzles and many secrets hidden within. The teaser announced the full Silent Hills game, which was canceled around April 2015 according to del Toro.
Konami has employed a scorched earth policy regarding Hideo Kojima following his departure after Metal Gear Solid 5 released. Before MGS5 released, Konami removed Kojima’s name from all promotional material, and fired him during production. The P.T. demo was another place where the Konami/Kojima spat effected their games. In 2015, it was delisted around the time of Silent Hills‘ cancellation. After being delisted from PSN, it was also no longer available to be downloaded from PlayStation, meaning that only those who had the game installed could keep playing it.
It is still unclear whether the P.T. is officially being killed by Konami with the supposed patch. It seems likely that the publisher wants to wipe away the last traces of Hideo Kojima’s work for the company, and killing the Silent Hills demo would be another nail in the coffin. If you still have P.T. installed, make sure you have automatic updates turned off, just in case.