The series is planned to consist of eight games, of which four have been released; Man of Medan (2019), Little Hope (2020), House of Ashes (2021), and the season one finale, The Devil in Me (2022).

[6] PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions with enhanced visuals were released as a free upgrade on 27 September 2022, alongside an update for all platforms which included a new chapter, improved U.I., new difficulty and QTE settings, and other tweaks and features.

[8] The game is inspired by the myth of the Ourang Medan, a suspected ghost ship from the 1940s, that wrecked after the crew all died under suspicious circumstances.

[9] Additional inspirations include the horror movies Ghost Ship (2002) and Triangle (2009), Insidious (2010), and The Shining (1980).

[10][11] During World War II, a storm causes a biochemical weapon onboard the American freighter SS Ourang Medan, known as Manchurian Gold, to leak from its crates.

In the present day, Alex and his girlfriend Julia, as well as their respective brothers, Brad and Conrad, and their dive boat captain, Fliss are boarded by pirates.

For the rest of the story, choices by the player determines who lives and dies, and if anyone is able to escape the ship after being exposed to the Manchurian Gold.

[12] Little Hope was revealed as a post-credits trailer at the end of Man of Medan[13] and released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on 30 October 2020.

[17] The game is inspired by the films Aliens (1986), Predator (1987), and The Descent (2005); the book At the Mountains of Madness; and the myth of the Curse of Akkad.

[27][28] Doyle stated that the game also takes inspiration from other sci-fi horror films including Solaris (1972), Alien (1979), Event Horizon (1997), Pandorum (2009), Prometheus (2012), Life (2017), and Sputnik (2020).

The Curator is further characterized as an external, supernatural force, who describes himself as somehow barred from interfering directly but nonetheless appears in the background of certain character deaths.

[47] By 2018, Konami began soliciting pitches for future Silent Hill titles, including for an episodic series.

[2] In 2020, publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment described it as difficult to market as a series, as it was called an "anthology" while only having one entry; they considered it a long-term investment, that they thought would make more sense to players and would get a larger audience as more games become available.

[51] The music for the series is composed by Jason Graves,[52] while the opening theme is a rendition of Conversations with Death, which was recorded in 2017 by American metal bands Khemmis and Spirit Adrift.

[51] Little Hope's physical sales for its first week in the UK were 47% lower than Man of Medan's; GamesIndustry.biz commented that this may in part be due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a larger number of players buying digital versions of video games than in previous years.

Five featured the standard The Dark Pictures branding, subtitled The Craven Man, Directive 8020, Intercession, Winterfold, and Switchback.

Studio Director of the Anthology, Dan McDonald stated in a November 2022 interview that "we're having conversations about what's beyond [Game #8]", while adding that "ideas for a potential season three have already been kicking around for a while".