Folks on the Internet began freaking out this afternoon when word began quickly spreading that Konami’s P.T., the demo for the now-canceled Silent Hills, was being patched with a new 1.01 update that would officially lock out those who still own the game.
Before you know it, these stories made their way to the biggest platforms on the Internet–examples from Reddit and Twitter— and began spreading the message that P.T. was finally dead, even for those that had harbored the game away on their hard drives before its removal from the PlayStation Store in 2015. With how much of a punching bag Konami has become in recent years, it was easy for many to jump to the conclusion that this story was 100% true, even without verifying it for themselves.
And that’s the problem with this story as of now: it very well might not be true. What’s my proof? Well, I’m looking at P.T. right now on my TV in front of me.
Yes, if there is a new 1.01 update for P.T. that has been pushed out, it’s not one that my PS4 was able to find. When I accessed the P.T. file on my PS4, I manually selected the “Check for Updates” prompt and was found with nothing. My own version of P.T. still works the same as it ever has, and the same can be said for multiple other writers here at DualShockers who tested this on their own.
This is a conclusion that some others across the Internet seemed to reach as well. I’d say that a vast majority of the comments I have read from many have stated that their own versions of P.T. are still working perfectly. There are a few who have said that they can no longer access the game, but these comments have been few and far between. Plus, with a game like P.T. that already isn’t available to directly download and play, it’s hard to know if those in this group could just be running into issues with gaining the usual licenses that require you to access it in the first place nowadays.
The screenshot in question that has been passed around social media showing the 1.01 patch.
I’ve also seen a lot of people implying that Konami must just be sending this new 1.01 patch out “in waves” over the course of the next few days and weeks instead of doing it all at once. To chime in with my own two cents, this conclusion seems to be a fallacy. When developers and publishers push out new updates for games, they typically roll out to everyone at the same time. To imply that this dangerous new 1.01 patch might sneak onto your PS4 in the middle of the night over the course of the next few days just doesn’t seem to be likely.
From everything I’ve looked into so far, I just don’t think there is legitimacy to this story. At least not yet. I’m not sure if this is the work of someone trying to pull off a prank for Halloween with a potentially photoshopped image–seen above–or if this is indeed something that has transpired. If it’s the latter, then I’d definitely like to know more about just why only a handful of people have received this update rather than everyone. For the moment though, I think you’d be better off saving your Konami complaints for another day.
As of now, we have reached out to Konami representatives for an official statement regarding this situation. They did not respond to our inquiry before the publishing of this article, but we’ll be sure to update you if we receive one.