Video game developers and movie directors don't often mix outside of turning games into films (and vice versa). One director, though, has been very vocal about his desire to work with the video game industry: Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro is the legendary mind behind Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, and The Shape of Water, but he's also dabbled in gaming over the years. This all came to a head in 2014, when a now-notorious demo titled P.T. was released on the PlayStation 4 store to promote the upcoming game Silent Hills, at the time meant to be the next game.

that del Toro had always wanted. Sadly, Silent Hills was canceled, and P.T. was pulled from the PS store, and fans never got to find out what a game directed jointly by these directorial geniuses would have looked like. This cancellation is even more disappointing in light of an old interview with the director, where he shared

In a 2008 interview with Edge magazine (archived on the Wayback Machine) Guillermo del Toro revealed that . "I was around for the first Pong—that's how old I am," he told the interviewer in 2008. "Then there was a lightgun game with a pistol that was very cheesy, and an Atari system. Every cliché you see in ‘80s movies, that was me."

Del Toro went on to list some games that inspired him with their beautiful worlds and stellar storytelling, like GTA and Army of Two. Although he stated that he only considered two games masterpieces—Ico and Shadow of the Colossus—he admitted to being inspired and enjoying a varied list of titles.

He was also a "fan" of several other games, includingHe praised the latter, in particular, comparing it to a film masterpiece, stating: "The first Silent Hill was so beautiful, almost like a Lynch, Polanski or Romero type of horror experience."

It seems that even in 2008,. He admitted to being inspired by the medium "a lot," stating that "videogames use art direction, colour and storytelling in a very pure way that a lot of movies have forgotten."

Del Toro has worked on video games with Konami before. In fact, the Edge interview with the film director dates back to when he was acting as a creative director alongside Mike Mignola for the video game adaptation of Hellboy, titled Hellboy: The Science of Evil. Although he was collaborating with Konami, for Death Stranding, though his contribution to the title was limited to lending his likeness to Deadman.

But . The IMDB page for P.T.—possibly the only game demo to ever get its own dedicated page—lists both Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro as directors. The influence of both creators could be felt in the brief demo, which had players walking down the creepy and atmospheric looping hallways, pursued by a spirit named Lisa.

Over a million players downloaded the demo during the year or so that it was available, and (a few consoles are listed on eBay for $400 at the time of this writing). P.T. was praised by fans and critics alike as a masterpiece and the best horror game of all time, and showed players a glimpse into the terrors that Kojima and del Toro could create when they joined forces.

Games allow you to "tap in to a more immersive narrative experience than most movies," del Toro told Edge in 2008. He believed that video games would "yield a couple of narrative masterpieces" within a decade. Little did he know that . With Silent Hills, the director would have finally had the chance to deliver a video game project that combined video game creation with filmmaking for a story that couldn't be told through just a movie.

Sadly, a disagreement between Hideo Kojima and Konami led to the director leaving the studio to form Kojima Productions in 2015. As a result, . Del Toro has remained vocal about his support of Kojima, gleefully proclaiming "F*** KONAMI" on X when Kojima announced Death Stranding at the 2016 Game Awards.

Both directors have moved on from their joint project, but it's hard to forget the impact that P.T. and the potential of Silent Hills had on the gaming industry and storytelling. It was a , which del Toro told Edge in 2008, "allow you to tap in to a more immersive narrative experience than most movies."

The disappointment of Silent Hills' cancellation is even more upsetting after seeing just how passionate del Toro was about video games and Silent Hill, long before the chance for a collaboration was even on the table. Video games, stated del Toro, are "an incredible storytelling tool, one that filmmakers should embrace instead of reject." Maybe one day, fans will finally get to see a project made by the two directors, but a collab will never happen now that Kojima has cut ties with Konami, and that's a shame.

Source: Edge magazine, IMDB, RealGDT/X, GameRant