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Silent Hill fans are not happy with Konami after the company released a rare vinyl record only for the publisher's storefront to tell them it had to be purchased in batches of five, despite being limited to just 500 copies printed.
On January 25, Konami announced that it was releasing the official Silent Hill 2 soundtrack on rust-colored vinyl in collaboration with record manufacturer Mondo. Like a lot of high-profile vinyl releases, this record was limited to just 500 units, so fans were eager to try and get their hands on this elusive collectible.
The only problem is, the record apparently sold out in minutes, if not a single minute. Although this is pretty normal for rare variants and limited pressings, many fans reported that the Konami website was only allowing people to purchase the record if they bought five of the thing, which obviously makes the 500 unit count a lot more stressful.
Shortly after the record went on sale, Konami tweeted to clarify that: "We sold out of all 500 units prior to the bugs that some customers are reporting." The publisher also stressed that there are "no scalpers allowed here." The good news is that Konami has already announced it's "planning to restock this item and bring it to you in an orderly fashion."
In other words, Konami claims prospective buyers were only asked to purchase five copies of the record due to a bug that popped up after it was already sold out. The whole situation did seem too strange and publicly pro-scalper to be true, though it wouldn't have been the first time an online storefront mistakenly swapped a product's minimum and maximum purchasable quantities. Whatever the cause, hopefully the next Silent Hill vinyl sale goes more smoothly.
Despite Konami's tweet about there being no scalpers, this clearly isn't completely true as the exact same record can already be found on eBay selling for upwards of $180, that's a markup of at least $130. Fans are understandably frustrated about the way the record was sold, as evidenced not only by Twitter discussions but also the r/VinylReleases subreddit.
The Silent Hill 2 vinyl situation makes me a bit apprehensive about the release of the upcoming games.I hope they don't balls that up as badly as they did with this.I also hope this was a case of a poor marketing team and not a sign of the same old Konami.January 25, 2023
I have NEVER seen anyone, even ticketmaster, bungle a preorder as bad as konami just did with the SH2 soundtrack vinyl repress.January 25, 2023
Take a look at our best Silent Hill games list to find out if your favourite made the cut.
