Five years ago on July 31, 2025, at Gamescom, Konami released a demo for a mysterious horror game calledPTon the PlayStation Store, which it claimed was being developed by a studio called 7780s Studio. 7780s Studio didn’t actually exist, and it turned out thatPTstood for “Playable Teaser” - and that the teaser was forSilent Hills, an exciting collaboration between Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro, and Norman Reedus. DespitePT’s popularity, Konami canceledSilent Hills, canned Hideo Kojima, and even went so far as to pullPTfrom the PlayStation Store, making it inaccessible to anyone who didn’t download it before.
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DespitePTbeing a demo that was only available for a short time, it had a huge impact on the industry, especially the horror genre. It inspired other studios to release their own cryptic demos, like we saw with theResident Evil 7Beginning Hour demo, and its first-person horror gameplay was mimicked by a number of copycats. No other video game demo has had quite the impact asPT, with the five following horror games directly inspired by it in one way or another.
55. Allison Road
Shortly afterSilent Hillswas canceled andPTwas removed from the PlayStation Store, indie developer Lilith Ltd. quickly stepped up to offer fans of the game a similar experience. And likeSilent Hills,Allison Roadhas had a tumultuous development cycle to say the least. The game was originally seeking funding on Kickstarter, but when it looked like it was going to fall short of its goal, publishing rights were picked up by Team17.Allison Roadwas then canceled, but a few months later, it was announced that development on the project had resumed. Unfortunately, we haven’t had much in the way of concrete updates onAllison Roadsince 2016, and it’s quite possible that it will never see the light of day.Allison Roadshowed a great deal of promise and looked to be just as scary asPT, so hopefully the project eventually comes together.
44. The Park
The Parkis a first-person psychological horror gamethat is actually a spinoff of the MMOThe Secret World. Clearly inspired byPT’s brand of first-person horror,The Parkfeatures a widowed mother named Lorraine as she searches for her missing son in a creepy theme park. LikePT,The Parkdoesn’t have any combat to speak of, with players instead just walking around the game world and interacting with various objects. The lack of a HUD, another idea lifted fromPT, allows for full immersion as players explore the park, which makes the game even scarier than it would be otherwise.
RELATED:Konami Has Renewed Its Silent Hill Trademark
33. Layers of Fear
Layers of Fearis a first-person horror game that may not have existed if it wasn’t forPT. Due toPT’s popularity, theLayers of Feardevelopers at Bloober Team realized that there was a market for horror games that weren’t strictly survival-horror titles. The developers also took inspiration fromPT’s use of “impossible space.” While it’s still disappointing thatSilent Hillswas canceled andPTwas pulled from the PlayStation Store, one positive is that the game helped create theLayers of Fearfranchise, which now has two games in total, and also allowed Bloober Team to make the well-received cyberpunk horror gameObserver. Bloober Team is also the studio behind theBlair Witchvideo game, which itself looks to be taking more than a few pages out of thePTplaybook.
22. Visage
LikeAllison Road,Visageis a horror game that is looking to fill the gap left byPT, with the developers seeking funding for the project on Kickstarter. However, the difference is thatVisagewas actually successful in its fundraising efforts, and to that end, the game is available right now through early access. The developers ofVisagecontinue to release updates for the game on a regular basis, and the reviews on Steam are mostly positive, with mainly praising it for its genuine scares and tense atmosphere. When it leaves early access,Visageshould be one of the most completePT-inspired gaming experiences on the market, and could very well be one of the best horror games of the year.
RELATED:PT Demo Recreated in Media Molecule’s Dreams
11. Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil 7producer Masachika Kawata has said that the game was always going to have a first-person viewpoint, even before anyone on the team playedPT. However, he also admitted that he"really loved"PT, and it’s easy to see how Kojima’s project could have influencedRE7’s development. Besides the fact that both games are first-person exploratory games with an intense focus on pure horror, the aforementionedResident Evil 7Beginning Hour demo was highly reminiscent ofPT, filled with cryptic puzzles and secrets.
