Update: Abandoned hasn’t been abandoned! Blue Box Game Studios has released a rare new statement, which explains that rumours regarding the PlayStation 5 game’s cancellation is false. It goes on to explain the work continues on the Realtime Experience app and a playable Prologue, but this has been delayed. “Unfortunately we aren’t ready yet as we underestimated our development roadmap,” the message says.
Original Story: Do you remember Abandoned? The vapourware project from Dutch developer Blue Box Game Studios went viral last year, when some mistakenly suspected the survival horror game could be a ruse from legendary creator Hideo Kojima, similar to his Silent Hills teaser PT on the PlayStation 4. This ended up being false, but it catapulted the indie studio into the spotlight. It eventually released a Realtime Experience app on the PS5, which featured two or three seconds of in-engine footage.
It’s been a while since we last got an update from the studio, and that’s because some fans have spotted that the team has been quietly deleting posts from its Twitter account. A quick comparison between a Wayback archive of the company’s social media page and its current one reveals that dozens of messages have been deleted, including one which alluded to a playable “tech demo” inside the aforementioned Realtime Experience app.
Clearly there’s no game here, and we can’t imagine Abandoned will ever release. But it raises an interesting question about how an unknown studio managed to go viral around the world, and even release an app on the PS Store. It’s an incredible story in hindsight, and it speaks to the power of social media.
[source web.archive.org, via twitter.com, twitter.com]
Comments 62
I was kinda wondering what happened to this thing.
I'm calling it now: Abandoned is PT by Hideo Kojima, it will be announced today, published by Sony.
This all from 2 pictures of a dark/lit hallway from his studio Kojima posted today on his instagram.
How's that?
Edit: oh, also, why would Greg Miller delay the PS XOXO to thursday when Project Spartacus was announced on Tuesday and isn't even worth spending 5 minutes talking about it? Lol
Lol.
That's all.
After learning the developer's history of promising games and then never releasing them, I guess I'm not surprised.
I find it strange that Sony gave some kind of backing to this.. if they have nothing, did they just tell Sony what they wanted to hear and they believed them..?
They must have had gameplay or something. It's just all rather strange.
There was a lengthy tweet about how they are a bunch of scammers and they have a "rich history" of promises that never came to fruition. Weird how nobody picked this up on P.S.
I think they even changed "studio" names a couple of times too lmao!
Edit: If anyone is wondering what the hell I'm talking about, here's a pic of their lies: https://ibb.co/5FcpDYg
Maybe an abstract modern art project. Hint is in the game title.
This was hands down among the weirdest stories I've ever seen from the game industry in my life. So many parts just never added up to anything. I mean they made a huge deal about this trailer app and how the first gameplay was going to be shown...and then all they released was the exact same 3 second clip they used to tease the teaser on twitter...after delaying the trailer release by like a day or two from the expected release time!
When I play it over again in my head I swear it feels like it was so weird that I question if it ever really actually happened. So bizarre!
I really don’t like dogging on devs, but these devs absolutely took advantage of the attention they were getting and only ended up burning everything in the end. I hope any future endeavors are a success and the team isn’t discouraged, but I’m certainly not going to be sticking around to see it.
So weird seeing Kojima get wrapped up in a no-name studio's "game". I understand everyone wants P.T. (or an equivalent) to make a triumphant return.
But man.
Wow, no-one saw this coming...
Oh wow, I'm shocked!
Even their website appears to have been Abandoned.
They said that the playable prologue would be Q1. I actually tweeted them a few days ago, saying that Q1 is nearly over
Least surprising news story of 2022...
And now the part in the investment scam where they run away with the money.
There never was a game, it was a grift from the start. I don't know if it's money laundering or what, but these "devs" are legit con artists.
Website that posted 20 stories about a Vapourware title ponders how a Vapourware title managed to get so much attention.
Wow that blows. I wasn't expecting much, but they could've at least released a crappy game that we could make fun of. How anticlimactic.
@ChrisDeku Haha, spot on!
@ScepticDK "phony outrage over people calling the "studio" out"
Yeah I remember a few of those very people in this site although they probably won't show up in this comments section, you know who you are 🙃
Honestly I feel for the people working on this. It's hard enough to get noticed as a small studio, they tried some guerilla marketing, it got some traction which was great, but Reddit and others ran away with it saying tit was Kojima etc. Seemingly they got in way over their heads and like a rabbit in headlights didn't know how to respond.
“ But it raises an interesting question about how an unknown studio managed to go viral around the world”
Idiots on Twitter that’s how.
I know that doesn’t narrow it down.
i'll admit i was excited about this at first , but as time went on i cared less and less about this. its time we all moved on from this , even if they eventually did show something and it was great would any one even care at this point.
@Divergent95 Exactly. I think Yongyea made a video about it?
Hey look, they did the thing they did before....... shocked
Wow. No one ever saw this coming. Like every other project they did before.
I was actually interested in seeing how this game turned out. Maybe I’m just a sucker and they pulled me in with their way of advertising, but it seemed like a game I would be interested in. Hopefully the truth on this game comes out someday.
A Kansas City shuffle if ever i saw one....
I think this is just a scam from the dev to get the funding 😕
@solidox I was thinking the same thing!
Good. The studio deserves to be shut down and they all need to lose their jobs. Bunch of useless developers praying on the fans by lying to them and trying to chase clout, scamming us trying to fund their stupid project. Good riddance.
Investment scam, through and through. Think Theranos, but games. You make a splashy promise, followed up by the barest minimum of deliveries at a drip feed pace (a demo app?! Like, wtf, who falls for that?), combined with some Fraud Lite, to keep the faucets running. Eventually someone gets wise but you can burn through 7-8 figures before that happens.
"But it raises an interesting question about how an unknown studio managed to go viral around the world."
The answer: Silent Hill
Make it happen Sony!
The devs abandoned their game like their other titles? Shocker!
Another AAA exclusive lost, sony is finished now.
No wonder MBG just totally ignored hassan hanrahaahajan when he popped up in live chat on one of his streams, it was almost like he knew he was just a charlatan.
@BartoxTharglod isn't it an exclusive game?
Does anyone still care at this point
@EquiinoxGII Their wording here was very tricksy.
It's not a PlayStation exclusive due to any effort on Sony's part.
It's a game that this developer is choosing to just make for PlayStation.
The wording they used at the time was very sly. It was something like, "A game we are making exclusively for PlayStation," or something to that effect. I remember reading it in the blog post at the time and raising an eyebrow at the word "exclusively".
They were trying to cash in on the hype that surrounds PlayStation first-party exclusives.
Very slimy stuff.
Edit: "The team and I are working on our new title, coming exclusively to PS5 this year..."
Sony never backed this team or this project. As @BartoxTharglod noted, you can pay for a blog post.
Just like you can pay for a bill board.
@Shepherd_Tallon thanks for clarifying mate! Makes sense
@EquiinoxGII No worries! 🙂
We all know this game is going to range from awful to average at best
Everything has been delayed? Wow...what a surprise.
What fascinating debacle this continues to be. I hop it continues to pop up on the news wire a few times a year j just for the entertainment!
@BartoxTharglod it was announced at Sony's state of play wasn't it
“Shady Company Swears They Aren’t Shady.” Phew, dodged a bullet there.
Can we just ignore these clowns, absolute joke of a developer
does any one care ? honestly right now people should just forget about them and the game till they actually can show something.
Remember when they cancelled the release of a demo the day before? Yeah...
Can't believe there is still nothing from this dev
@StylesT Games that don't actually exist don't get to range anywhere.
I think it's just simply crazy that they were going to release the PROLOGUE in June of last year, and it's still not ready? I'm starting to think that they were going to abandon it but because of the publicity on Sony's platform Sony haven't let them.
No one would care about this game if it wasn't a PS5 exclusive.
It looks like indie horrow shovelware.
Surprised that people still hasn't abandoned this game
I stopped caring about Blue Box Studios and Abandoned ages ago...clearly a company just taking advantage of people.
They dropped the ball and the hype got out of hand and now it is heading to the end.
It’s a waste of time
Oh no. No doubt the hype train will start again.
Honestly there will never be anything decent released from these guys.
@Wasted_Smuggler it's quite surprising that they never did a Kickstarter for the game, since I'm sure many would have backed them.
Hey look dev I was abandoned as a child too I know a cryptic cry for help when I see one. Get help. Or a demo out, or something
It's been like 1, 5 year and they still don't have a playable prologue. Bruh moment
This is exactly what a shady company would say.
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