PT, the playable teaser for Silent Hills, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary today, August 12, 2024. Below, we look back at how even as a demo, it impacted the survival horror genre.
Nobody thought much of a new horror title from an unknown studio called 7780, dropped in right as Hideo Kojima was finishing up on stage at Gamescom on August 12, 2014. Mostly, it was just cool they were introducing a game using a “playable teaser”–an idea that, by itself, does deserve to happen more often.Some hours later, it became clear August 12, 2014 was the day horror in video games would be changed for years to come.
On August 12, 2014, players who downloaded P.T. booted up the game and began their long walk to perdition, through a recursive hallway. The hallway was dusty and cluttered, but recognizably normal, aside from the radio broadcast describing the grisly murder-suicide of a father and his family. Walking through the door at the end of the L-shaped hallway brought them back to the beginning–over and over, but with small, unnerving changes. A bathroom door is cracked open, with a woman vaguely visible inside before it slams shut. The next time through, the bathroom is open, laying bare the bloody, screaming fetus in the sink. The next: A featureless woman stands in the hall before vanishing. The next: The radio broadcast tells you, yes you, to turn around.
