Kojima Productions has a reputation for creating cryptic teasers, and the OD trailer shown at The Game Awards has upheld it. By dissecting the footage frame-by-frame, fans have uncovered several references to Silent Hill and 2014's P.T.
A subreddit dedicated to solving these mysteries, r/OD_Kojima, has quickly amassed over 1300 subscribers at time of writing. Its top post shows a series of blink-and-you'll-miss-it trailer screenshots, each one showing a single letter that combines to spell 'ATAMI'. Many commenters were quick to point out that 'Atami' is a town in Shizuoka and served as one of the inspirations for Silent Hill.
Further posts drew comparisons between the blank face at the start of the trailer and P.T's brightness slider; when brightened, both show an MRI scan. Commenters are confident in the link, with one writing "Yep, it's obvious this is going to be whatever PT was [...] This will be the scariest game ever."
The connections go even deeper, with Kojima's dramatic entrance at The Game Awards making use of an uncanny resemblance to P.T's iconic door. Jordan Peele is also confirmed to be working on the project, with other unnamed creatives contributing in some capacity.
Beyond the references, many were impressed with the OD trailer's graphics. The cast shown so far (Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer and Udo Kier) have been digitally recreated with incredible attention to detail, but one poster was suspicious of their sentences containing every letter of the alphabet - a pangram.
"Having the player speak a pangram and capture their face may be enough to create scenes with the player's likeness; all the scenes we see are very simple headshots with speech. I think this could create some great uncanny horror and psychological distress. Imagine your likeness being upset, sadistic, etc - very creepy."
If this marks Kojima's return to the Silent Hill franchise, it comes at the perfect time, as many fans were bitterly disappointed by the series' latest entry. Some have claimed that OD can't possibly be Silent Hill due to Konami's hold over the IP, but it's sure to be heavily inspired if all the references are being read correctly.