Silent Hill Ascension season pass pricing announced on premiere date

Konami and Genvid Entertainment’s interactive horror streaming series Silent Hill: Ascension premieres Tuesday — on Halloween night — and for the next 16 weeks, viewers will decide the fates of its characters and influence Silent Hill canon through their choices. A new trailer for Silent Hill: Ascension helps to better explain how the interactive series works and how much it will cost.

Tuesday’s premiere of Silent Hill: Ascension will run about 45 minutes, with normal nightly episodes spanning about 5-15 minutes. Genvid expects to generate about 45 minutes of content for its series each week.

Silent Hill: Ascension will be free to watch and interact with. The app itself, available from the App Store and Google Play, is also free to download. But viewers can purchase a season pass that will work similarly to many games’ battle passes. That season pass unlocks a long list of in-game cosmetics, including stickers and character customization options.

Image: Genvid Entertainment/Konami

Viewers who want to be a part of the experience will be able to show off those cosmetics through cameo contests. Ascension viewers’ in-app avatars have the opportunity to show up as extras and in speaking roles.

Genvid’s series will play out nightly, with new episodes premiering at 9 p.m. EDT/6 p.m. PDT. As episodes stream, viewers can vote in real time, spending what are called Influence Points, or IP (styled as ᚾᚹ in the app), to sway decisions. The more points you have, the stronger your influence, says Jacob Navok, CEO of Genvid.

Navok says that Silent Hill: Ascension won’t be pay-to-win; viewers can’t simply spend a bunch of money on IP to outvote their fellow Silent Hill fans. And while IP can be purchased directly and unlocked through the season pass, there are free ways to earn the points. In addition to its branching narrative scenes, Ascension has moments called Endurance Scenes, real-time QTEs that viewers can participate in to decide characters’ fate (and earn them IP).

Image: Genvid Entertainment/Konami

Silent Hill: Ascension also includes daily puzzles that will let players earn IP. These puzzles include things like a rhythm game in which players strum a guitar (to Akira Yamaoka Silent Hill songs, no less), lockboxes, hash puzzles, and a classic tile puzzle game. These puzzles can also be helpful in aiding the characters of Ascension, restoring their in-game Hope meter to keep them in play.

Genvid is selling the season pass for $19.99, which spans six months of content. That six-month window includes the original 16-week playthrough of the interactive series, and new game plus-style replays, which will offer different outcomes. The initial season pass is available as part of a Founder’s Pack until Nov. 14, and that pack includes exclusive cosmetics.

Silent Hill: Ascension can be streamed on Android and iOS devices, or through the series’ website, Ascension.com. Ascension will also stream as “packaged episodes,” factoring in viewers’ decisions, on a weekly basis through the Sony Pictures Core app, which is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sony’s Bravia televisions, and select Xperia smartphones.