Update: Well, that didn’t take long. Blue Box Game Studios has apologised for a tweet that many felt implied some kind of connection to the Silent Hill franchise:
Either this team is incredibly naïve or is comprised of master publicists. To be honest, we’re not sure what’s going on with this game – this is one of the most bizarre marketing cycles we’ve ever experienced in over a decade of running Push Square.
As for what starts with ‘s’ and ends with ‘l’, well… We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?
Original Article: Blue Box Game Studios got a lot of sympathy for unwittingly being dragged into a non-existent Hideo Kojima ruse, but this teasing will do it no favours if it turns out to be a gag. The Dutch developer working on PlayStation 5 survival game Abandoned sent out a message on Twitter this evening which raised eyebrows: “Guess the name: Abandoned = (First letter S, Last letter L). Reveal closing in...”
https://twitter.com/BBGameStudios/status/1404890697006784521
It’s obviously alluding to Silent Hill here, but there’ll inevitably be a backlash when that turns out not to be true. There have been rumours about Konami’s survival horror series for well over a year. In fact, at one point, it was heavily speculated that Japan Studio was rebooting the franchise – before the team was disbanded, of course.
Everything about Abandoned has been strange from start to finish; an interactive demo will purportedly release on the PS5 soon, allowing you to “watch” the game’s trailers rendered in real-time on your console. We’ll be waiting with intent for the Dutch developer’s next move – currently, we’re not convinced referring to Silent Hill is its best decision.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 94
If it turns out to be something other than Silent Hill, like Survival or Shadowfall or something dumb like that, then this marketing gimmick was not a good move imo.
But at the end of the day what matters is the quality of the game with the gameplay reveal coming up soon. People are talking about it, hopefully it delivers.
Maybe it's "Survival"... 👀
Now it's obviously Silent Hill, the amount of backlash if it isn't would be insane
I also immediately thought of Survival
However it would be illogical in this tweet as a 'reveal'
I wouldn't think a new silent hill game exclusive to playstation would be very likely
@Robson_Oliveira Yep, probably — but they know what they're doing with that tweet.
yeah this won't go down well if it's not silent hill.
i mean it's almost so on the nose.
altough imagine the shock if Abondoned turns out to be have just been a teaser for silent hill all along lol
That tree bark is beautiful.
... I'm cooking my popcorns...
Press is press, though. Even if this isn't something Silent Hill related, I didn't even know what Abandoned was until I saw this. That's the whole point.
Steven Seagal.
They are asking for a name, not a word.
There's going to be Sony conference I can feel it with this, death stranding ps5 shown soon, horizon and release date, fractions 2 I just feel somethings coming lol
They have also changed their background image on their yt chanel to - guess what - hills. Also, my gut feeling is telling me Kojima is working on it.
Sorry, couldn't help but had to check again the "studio's" homepage... http://blueboxgamestudios.com/ ... WTF ? it's all a smoke screen?
@MappingExpert realy? wow if it's not silent hill related then it's just trolling that will crash down hard.
@Robson_Oliveira or supernatural
@jdv95 yup go ahead check their yt channel, it didn't have those hills last time a checked (was around the time of SH PS5 exclusive rumors)
Aren't they supposed to be releasing some kind of app or demo soon?
I wasn't buying in, but for a game company that has supposedly been around since 2015 they have a startling lack of content. Twitter: like 5 posts. Insta: 2 posts. Youtube: 0 Posts.
damn it's already getting traction on youtube.
hope the devs won't shoot themselves in the foot with that tweet.
So maybe we will get a good Sony Direct?
@SwitchVogel They already got the press the first time around, it seemed like Silent Hill even if it wasn't and would've made it seem interesting to the crowd that wants a new Silent Hill, if it's not Silent Hill after this teaser then that crowd will now hate and boycott them
At least they got this article out of that tweet.
Harsh comments. It probably isn't Silent Hill BUT it's a brand new PS game and I'm intrigued regardless.
Who literally gives a *****
@kingbreww Apparently a lot of people are curious.
They're playing with fire here. Silent Hill fans have been starving for almost two decades at this point, and are known to lash out when provoked.
I want to believe it but we've been burned with Silent Hill rumours so many times that it's hard to take this seriously.
Also, people have been asking if Sony will do an event soon. There's a rumour from the same guy that leaked Far Cry 6 gameplay that Sony will do something on July 8th, let's hope so.
@Loftimus 0_0
On the Abandoned trailer, the woman narrating it states the following: "A powerless, thirsty, and a weak prey of a strong blood-loving community led by a religious nut job, a false prophet that will do anything for power..." This reminds me of Dahlia Gillespie from SH 1. This sounds like a SH reboot! If it's not, they will cause the utmost rage in the gaming community! xD
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but the developer has tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/BBGameStudios/status/1404924897340674049?s=19
@JohnnyShoulder What a shame
@Nepp67 Yeah damn straight. I want a new (or a remake) Silent Hill game too, but it won't be from this developer.
@JohnnyShoulder "It was never our intention to tease the name as Silent Hill." Come on, man. Yeah, the fans started with the Silent Hill theories but they also helped to fuel it. How can they say the previous tweet was not a Silent Hill tease?
It smells. Somethings a little fishy.
@Nepp67 what now?
@FlashBandit @JechtUltima Let's get the pitch forks out guys!
But this is the second time they've had to deny having no links to Kojima.
They apologised but I think they are trolling.
This is basically a ploy to get people's eyes on their game.
These guys are gonna eat crow if the game isn't SH now.
@Loftimus Cry in a corner knowing we'll never get a SH game
@Nepp67 well? Was it the tree bark comment or pointing they are after a name and not a word? Which one got to you enough you felt the need to reply?
I'm still interested in how this game will ne since it still is a survival horror title so hopefully the gameplay is interesting on the 22nd. I'm still interested in what the name will be cause the devs did say Abandoned is a codename
Updated lol.
@Loftimus The name comment unfortunately lol
This is so weird, wasn't their intentions? it was clearly by the first tweet.... I really don't understand their social marketing of this game so far its like build people up let them down in same day.. People will be disappointed no matter what now may aswell stuck to their game not teasing its silent hills if anything people will be less interested now
Abandoned = Survival I think that is what the tweet was supposed to mean. Very poor job by the account manager.
@Would_you_kindly
That frankly wouldn't necessarily be out of the picture to have a Silent Hill game be PS exclusive. Series started with the first game being a PS1 exclusive and the second and third games were synonymous with the PS2.
@Nepp67 so that makes me want to cry because we're not getting a silent hill game? Thats an interesting way of thinking...
No way they didn’t know what they’re doing lol
Obviously it's Silent Hall....
@get2sammyb beautiful "Updated lol". Really sums up the thing
Is it… Survival?!
What?!
Am I late to the party?
Now the devs are responding to people on Twitter and claimed that the segment they showed previously with the person walking in the forest with a gun wasn’t the actual game and that the game hasn’t been revealed yet. What the heck is going on?
Wait so Cyberpunk defrauding millions, and their own financiers through outright lying via a heavy marketing campaign that remained resolute with those lies for nearly a year, is less bizarre a marketing cycle than this game unfortunately sparking a hoard of online fan-people focused on an archaic game equating a title that could have been a multitude of names, to just that archaic series....
Really? If anything the click baiting nature of this article feeding into that absurdity is the real nonsense of all of this.
They are replying on twitter and state that they didnt know people thought the game was already silent hill. Something just doesnt add up here at all. Its either genius or disastrous. Either way, they have our attention.
Edit: they also confirm that Abandoned is a code name for development purposes and are excited to reveal the definitive name for it.
Every response they are giving just feels weird. You reading their tweets @get2sammyB
The entitlement people have for an apology when ***** like this goes down is just ridiculous!
The real world is going to hit some of them real hard when it comes to disappointments
So obviously silent Hill now though, who knows how much more they'll string it along though
Its def silent hill. Hideo Kojima even tweeted June 9th about 2 books he was reading. One was called SILENT Wife and the other was by Joe HILL. Silent Hill. The game directors name is Hasan Kahraman. HK. Hideo Kojima. The Hill on their YT page. Some of the wording the their tweets are suggestive its true as well. Like come on. Its gotta be Silent Hill. right? Right?! RIGHT!?!
@PegasusActual93 would cost alot of money to get exclusivity for a silent hill game I would imagine
@BusyOlf I think it already hits them with disappointments. That's why they try to escape through video games.
@BusyOlf They started it though, they wanted eyeballs on their game no matter what they got it. As far as I can see it looks like a studio full of trolls, their game better be out of this world and better than any Silent Hill game if it isn't Silent Hill.
Whereas I wouldn't normally back entitled gamers, this is something they clearly know would get the Silent Hill community roused. They are playing a risky game with marketing here because either it is 100% Silent Hill and they are just messing with the fans or its really not and the backlash will be that whatever they dish out won't be Silent Hill and people won't want to play it.
Either way I think these tactics aren't helping to sell the game. Kojima is definitely up to something though so we just need to wait and see.
Removed - disrespecting others
@get2sammyb I'll double the bet, their apology doesn't say they are NOT working on Silent Hill... this is what I choose to read:
"... We have no relations with Konami" = We work with Sony
"Silent Hill is owned by Konami" = But Sony got use of the license
"We do not have any relations with Hideo Kojima" = turns the big chair around and faces the camera while saying "I AM Hideo Kojima!"
Mark my words
As the Joker once asked, "Why so serious?".
Have gamers lost their sense of humour? Discuss.
😉
Ehhh..the tease wasn't so bad.
You can see the Silent Hill fans foaming from mouth after that tease.
Cant blame them.
@Waffles12415 Agreed, a Dutch studio as well, Kojima using the Decima engine again from Guerilla Games...
Bizarre. I am sure the Twitter/Community manager is getting a roasting right now - unless this is all part of some bonkers marketing trick.
But all they achieve by doing this is upsetting people - and lets be honest, we all know the gaming community doesn't tend to be the most rational at expressing their feelings on something.
Nah this will just drive people away from their game. People dont like tricks and double feints like this. Mad. Absolutely mad.
They are continuing to dig a hole for themselves with follow up messages on their twitter account too, claiming they didn't know people were linking the game to a new silent hill. Lol. They knew exactly what they were doing
Maybe it's set in 'Solihull'?
This was the actions of a small dev team delighted that they're getting this much attention, so decided to capitalise on it,it probably seemed a good idea at the time,either way they've got some publicity bad or not,good luck to them I say ,and I hope for their sake the game is great.
Survival rhymes with Silent Hill sort of.
They knew what they were doing
I have no issue with what they did.
OK, here is my take. Konami own the Silent Hill franchise. Konami and Kojima fall out big time. Kojima wants to do another S.H. game. Kojima goes under cover with Blue Point games. Blue point games does a S.H. style game in all but title so that Konami would have to prove copyright in the courts.
This game may be actually called something different to Silent Hill but it will in every other way still be a Silent Hill game.
@CarlosR87 lol i know the feeling. i remember the Christmas my dad kept dropping hints i was getting a PS4. Even my wife thought so. I got an electric toothbrush lol 😆
Maybe it’s Sigil. 👀
@DragonSlayer1759
I was thinking about something similar too. Haha. I'm ready for anything. When their site goes live the logo becomes only a Blue Box and a Blue Point in the middle with PS Studios beneath haha
@CarlosR87 haha he didn't understand why i was disapointed either 😂
@CarlosR87 Looool how did you even find that 🤣🤣 i've not seen that one before. Brilliant 👏👏
@Ralizah consider me provoked! Somebody’s about to feel the full force of my stiletto..
That account is still trolling😂
I just wanted to point out another crazy coincidence I’ve seen others have discovered online. Not my discovery.
If you search Blue Box Game Studios, the founder is someone named Hasan Kahraman. Kahraman is a Turkish name in origin meaning “hero”. If you go to Google translate Japanese to Turkish and you type in Hideo, it translates on the Turkish side to Kahraman. Go ahead try it yourself!
I didn’t believe this was more than an indie from a small studio but that is a freaky coincidence.
@Gilvin
I Agree! No one think it's strange a game developer that work with Sony and says it has worked with other studios does not have a proper or functional website to show its portfolio?
Blue box games = ps4/ps5 games come in a blue Ray blue box.
Everytime theres a mention about silent hill everyone wants to talk about kojima, kojimas the only one that can do it, it HAS to be him. Silent hill isnt even his game, in fact its not even konamis, they own it in name only as they bought publishing rights from the original studio team silent. Keiichiro Toyama is the real creator of silent hill. Him and all those other devs went on to do their own thing like making the game "Siren", its entirely possible to get a silent hill game by someone other than Kojima.
That is the second time this studio has gone out of their way to say this is not Silent Hill and they are not working on Silent Hill.
Moby Dick Studios denied similar when the "brand new studio" was teasing a new game and they had flat out denied they were working on MGS V The Phantom Pain...
@DeepSpace5D
Hideo also means 'hero' in Japanese haha
It’s so sad so many intelligent people here were predicting a backlash. It’s a tweet. It’s not silent hill so what?!?
Modern life is rubbish.
People need to get a life if they think this is “backlash” worthy. I’d imagine the abuse these guys have got have been terrible for the mental health and did they deserve that?!? Absolutely not.
Pathetic. Some of you should be ashamed.
Online abuse is not ok. A backlash over this is abuse. Simple
I guess you could make too many jokes on what the name could be..."Sukkel"? Dutch for s*cker..?
@Robson_Oliveira Exactly!!
All the tinfoil hat signs point to Kojima's take on Silent Hill
To be fair, whatever the game will be it already has it's share of publicity and, if it happens to be Silent Hill (or something similar) it'll be just too fun how the whole thing has developped
Blue Box? More like Blue Isle, this is a Slender: The Arrival sequel/remake
All I can think about with this whole situation is how much I hate Konami.
Third person perspective!
YES!!!
@EnragedGibbon and now Konami is adding new stuff to their shop and the background has the nurse from silent hill 👀 https://twitter.com/konamishop/status/1405576761992171523?s=21
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