A few days ago, a Silent Hill demo was leaked onto the internet. This potentially damaging loss spread like wildfire, with sites generating upwards of 1200 downloads of the demo, which only operates on PSPs with unpatched, or unofficial firmware. Karl Jeffery, CEO and founder of developer Climax, told GamesIndustry.biz that the UK developer is not responsible for the leak. "All I can say is that code did not leak from Climax – 100 per cent guaranteed," said Jeffery. "The code that is out there is fingerprinted and was supplied solely to Konami for marketing purposes."

"At Climax we have strong and proven security procedures that protect all of our code, assets and builds," he added. "We have developed over 100 titles in 20 years in business and have never had a leak or theft from inside the company." In spite of this apparent security breach, it doesn't appear as though the release will be pushed back. Thank goodness -- could we really have waited even longer for Silent Hill Origins?

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Silent Hill: Origins producer William Oertel confirmed previous rumors that the game met serious problems during its production. The solution, it appears, was to switch development teams altogether. "Game development isn't an exact science, and sometimes you need to go back and adjust some things. In this case, it has been for the best. It was decided that moving development to Climax's Portsmouth office would be best for the game, and that introduced delays."

As evidenced by the most recent video footage, the game has certainly come a long way, and we're excited to find out more. It's clear that Origins is in good hands, with the producers understanding what makes a Silent Hill game so unique. "As I'm fond of saying, Silent Hill is an exercise in subtlety, and therefore the changes seen in this game, compared to previous games, reflect that."

[Via PSP GadgetZ]

Karl Jeffrey, CEO of Climax Studios, talked to GI.biz about the future of the PSP, and he thinks its pretty bleak. Climax, responsible for the development of over two dozen Sony titles, such as the ATV games, thinks that Sony is simply not doing enough to reinvigorate the now-slowing PSP market. "We're sitting here thinking about what Sony is going to do to get the platform back on track and we're not hearing much from them."

It's distressing to see one of Sony's development partners express such fear and uncertainty for the platform. "Personally, I love it as a platform to develop for, it's very powerful and it's a great machine," Jeffrey said. But it's very disappointing at the moment when you look at the installed base and the sales of the games that are out there; it's not a compelling prospect for many publishers."

Jeffrey believes that publishers will soon abandon the system, but predicts that a PSP redesign and downloadable games will help reverse the negative momentum. Too bad Sony continues to deny the possibility of a new PSP, and won't allow downloads without a PS3 (for now). Sony... what are you doing?!

Our eagerly-anticipated Silent Hill Origins may be in a little bit of trouble. The game's developer, Climax, recently laid off 14 of its workers in order to "integrate into a single management structure." (Source: Gamespot) According to Kotaku (you should already put on your "doubt" visors), the main reasoning behind the lay-offs was to "salvage the disastrous development of Silent Hill Origins for the PSP." The article continues to state that "the game had been cut extensively... shriveled down to a handful of much smaller levels and three to four hours of gameplay... Konami was understandably disappointed... and employees were told there were "no assurances" that the Origins project would continue."

While it would be disastrous if this rumor were true, I'm going to take a leap of faith and say it's untrue. The Kotaku report states that a working engine wasn't made available until June, which sounds false considering the game's incredible graphics engine (which was playable). Secondly, I highly doubt the folks at Konami would allow for a high-caliber project like this to fall apart, especially with their other high-profile PSP titles coming down the pipeline. Lastly, a developer in supposedly as much trouble as Climax wouldn't also be working on another high-profile game: Oblivion for the PSP. Climax is a relatively prolific developer: a few layoffs most likely won't affect the future of any of the games in development.

[Via PSP-Vault]