Guillermo Del Toro vows to ‘never again get involved with video games’ after Insane and Silent Hills disasters

Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim film directorGuillermo Del Toro has sworn off his involvement with games following the doomed development of his last two efforts.

Speaking to Shacknews, Del Toro referred to the unfortunate cancellation of both Insane, which he attempted to create with THQ in 2010 before its cancellation two years later, and the more recent Silent Hills, which was to be a collaboration with Metal Gear Solid mastermind Hideo Kojima before it too was shelved by publisher Konami.

I have proven to be the albatross of video games," Del Toro said.

"I joined THQ, and THQ goes broke. I join Kojima, and Kojima leaves Konami. I have decided, in order not to destroy anyone else’s life, I have decided I will never again get involved in video games. Otherwise, I’ll join someone and his house will explode, or something.”

Del Toro threw a little more light on the development of Insane, which he continues to own the rights to after THQ dropped the project.

I learned a lot from my experience at THQ," he explained. "I did. It changed the way I see narrative.

"We put two years of work in THQ. It was insane. We mapped it out, we did the viable, we did the outlines, we did the screenplay. We did a bunch of stuff. I know some of the tricks, or the stuff that I wanted to learn, I learned."

The much-anticipated Silent Hills – cancelled earlier this year after the release of PS4 ‘playable teaser’ PT at last year’s Gamescom – was also hinted at, with Del Toro saying he would potentially act as a consultant for future developers, but would decline direct involvement.

"Then I went to the side of Kojima-san, because he’s a master, and I can gladly say that we are friends and I love his work and I will continue learning from him as a friend," he continued. "But I am not… if I join another video game, World War III will start.

I can be creative about it, and I can be educated about it, and talk about it in a way that helps them make the video game. But no – I can’t.”