Silent Hill 2 Remake player uncovers a hidden message that could support a controversial story theory, but the creative director won't confirm it as canon

gamesradar.com:

Huge things are happening in the Silent Hill 2 fanbase, as one genius player has uncovered a hidden message tucked away in the horror remake that could support a controversial theory, but while one dev confirms they've cracked the code, he's not saying if that theory is actually canon. Be warned, potential spoilers for Silent Hill 2 are ahead. 

Over on Reddit, user Dale Robinson has worked out the true meaning behind the 'Strange Photos' collectibles introduced in the remake. There are 26 in total, and all of them include a bit of writing alongside the images themselves. It turns out that if you look at each picture hard enough, you'll see that there's a significant number of something visible – in the first photo, there are six open windows, while in the sixth one, there are four holes in the photo itself. If you then use this number for each picture to count along the letters on their accompanying writing, you'll end up with a message when looking at them in order – 'YOUVE BEEN HERE FOR TWO DECADES.'

Solving this was seriously impressive work, and it's not taken long for Bloober Team creative director and lead game designer Mateusz Lenart to weigh in and confirm that this is the exact message that the devs had hidden. "I knew it wouldn't stay hidden for long! (There was a theory in our company that the puzzle might be too hard)," Lenart says. "I really wanted to make it subtle when I was painting those photos... I think the timing couldn't be better for you to solve it. Congratulations!"

So then, what does this all mean? It'd be compelling evidence to support the time loop theory – the idea that protagonist James Sunderland is trapped, being endlessly tormented by Silent Hill's horrors. As @AestheticGamer1 on Twitter mentions, this was an existing idea before the release of the remake thanks to other clues, including original Silent Hill 2 art director Masahiro Ito previously proclaiming that "all of the endings are canon."

But does this mean that the theory is