Abandoned: A Year Long PR Nightmare
At the time of publishing, Blue Box Game Studios officially announced their debut title Abandoned one year ago today. Calling it a rocky year for the studio would be putting it lightly to say the least. To celebrate (?) the anniversary of the announcement, let’s take a look at the PR nightmare that has been Abandoned thus far.
Announcement
April 7th, 2021
Out of nowhere, a game came into existence and into gamer's consciousness, when Hasan Kahraman of Blue Box Game Studios posted on the Official U.S. PlayStation blog about their upcoming indie horror and PS5 exclusive, Abandoned. The game was originally slated for that year.
The game featured near-lifelike visuals of a dead, snow-capped forest that would place its protagonist Jason Longfield into. Realism was a key takeaway not only for the visuals, but the gameplay as well. Taking place in the first-person view, running out of breath from sprinting too much could even cause your accuracy with a gun to suffer. The story centered around being kidnapped and taken to this desolate forest for sinister purposes. Alone and confused, your one goal is to survive.
Post-Announcement
From here things get messy, and holds the beginning and current trail of information we're still on as Abandoned has yet to be released, or even seen to this date.
Silent Hill Allusions/Teasing
June 15th, 2021
Blue Box Studios sent out a tweet with the message,
"Guess the name:
Abandoned = (First Letter S, Last Letter L). Reveal closing in… #PS5 #Exclusive"
This was the veritable dam-break for every Silent Hill fan/Kojima Conspiracy Theorist out there. Folks came rushing in on Blue Box Games to confirm they were in actuality a fake studio that was really Kojima Productions continuing work on a new Silent Hill game.
It was not a smart move and plays into the larger problem at hand surrounding the game, the studio, and its director.
Apology For "S_, _L" Tweet
June 15th, 2021 - 3:12pm
Later the same day as the infamous tweet, Blue Box sent out another tweet to try and quell the flames it had just stirred up.
"We wanted to set things straight. We have no relations with Konami. Silent Hill is owned by Konami. We do not have any relations with Hideo Kojima. It was never our intention to tease the name as Silent Hill. We sincerely apologize for this."
Allusions to Hideo Kojima Fake Studio
From the tweet that was supposedly just a playful tease, misguided as it was, stirred the flames. Fans and skeptics alike started scouring the internet for any and all clues that could prove that Abandoned and Blue Box Game Studios along with it, were fake. Believing it to be a stand-in for Kojima Productions playing another long con in teasing a new game, including Hasan's initials being the same as Kojima's.
A precedent set by how Kojima teased and ultimately revealed to the world Metal Gear Solid V and Silent Hills. Without diving too much and giving false credence to those rumors, a bit of backstory is necessary for why these flames of conspiracy rose so high.
In the case of Metal Gear Solid V, it was first shown to the world in a trippy teaser and announced as The Phantom Pain, a new game from a new developer Moby Dick Studio. The hoax went so far as to even create a fake persona for the Swedish developer, Joakim Mogren, who was played by none other than Kojima himself.
In a similar but not nearly as dramatic fashion, Silent Hills had a similar outing. Originally announced and brought to the PlayStation Network as a demo labeled as P.T. (Playable Teaser) from 7780s Studio, a fake developer. The theatrics didn't last nearly as long though once players found out how to finish the demo's puzzle. Players were greeted with Norman Reedus' face, as well as the famous Silent Hill music before the title screen "Silent Hills" appeared.
It was these past events coupled with how much anonymity Blue Box and its Director Hasan Kahraman had surrounding it. This all led the wild goose chase, with the playful tease being a proverbial "final nail in the coffin".
Jason Schreier Piece
On June 21st, Jason Schreier of Bloomberg (and formerly of Kotaku) posted a deep dive into the situation that was bubbling up and had an hour long interview with the game's director, Hasan Kahraman. Through the piece, Jason raised important questions, but it seemed like Hasan either didn't have all the answers or was unwilling to give them up.
The piece is interesting in that while it does shed some light on the situation and help Hasan's case in some areas, it opened up more unanswered questions than were out there before the interview went up.
It's worth reading the piece in its entirety rather than taking any excerpts from it.
Director’s Video Tweets
Mere hours after the Jason Schreier piece went live on Bloomberg, Hasan Kahraman finally posted a video tweet. Something the rabid fans and conspiracy theorists we're nipping for since the infamous "S_, _L" tweet.
In it, Hasan says hello to the world in an attempt to squash these rumors.
June 21st, 2021 - 5:39pm
"Quick message from Hasan:"
(What follows is the audio transcribed from the short video message)
"Hello everyone, uhm. This is Hasan Kahraman, uhm. Just wanted to do a really quick video to show myself that-uhm, I'm a real person. And uhm, yeah, I'm not really associated with Hideo Kojima. Uhh, I'm not an actor. Not working on Silent Hill. So uhm, yeah I just wanted to show you guys uhh, yeah my face and uh that I'm real. And uhm, hopefully we'll do a QA uhh very soon. Just have to figure out when that will be. And then uhm. We'll talk uh, we'll talk more. Alright everyone, have a good one."
If that wasn't enough, now hot on the theory because he wore a black t-shirt, conspiracy theorists we're saying this "fact" confirmed it was still a Kojima ploy.
Those same conspiracy theorists had a field day when just four days later Hasan posted another video update, this time wearing a white turtleneck.
June 25th, 2021
"An update from Hasan"
(What follows is the audio transcribed from the short video message)
"Hello everyone I'm Hasan from Blue Box Games Studio, the Game Director for Abandoned. Uhm, the last few weeks was really stressful to us. The team is very tired. Umm. We were hoping to release the app today, and I know that a lot of you have been looking forward to it, so thank you very much for that. I really appreciate that. Uhm, however I've decided to um, delay the app until August. That is when the first trailer will also be released. Uhm, we just wanted to give you a solid first impression of the game. Uhhhm. Right now the app isn't quite there yet. We just wanted to have it meet our own expectations first. Uhm. There were also last minute bugs we had to deal with, and localization isn't fully completed yet. Uhhhm. So yeah uh, I hope you understand. I'm sorry for this. And uh, thank you for your support."
Real-Time Experience App
Either on June 15th or sometime before June 25th 2021, the Real-Time Experience App gets announced. Between then and July 27th the app goes up on the PlayStation Network with no content. On July 27th, the app gets an update including a blurred face of a person with an eyepatch.
August 13th, 2021
When the Abandoned Real-Time Experience App finally went live, it was met with rampant criticism. By this point, it had been four months that fans were waiting for something else on the game, and now nearly two months of having the app content teased.
When the update went live, players were met with an announcement message stating, "We are excited to kick off the real time experience app with a small introduction. The cinematic reveal and gameplay demonstration will be revealed soon! You can find the cinematic reveal and gameplay demo as a video online or rendered in real time using this app." The message was paired with a short video only featuring about eight seconds of game (or game engine) footage of someone walking.
Back To The Drawing Board
October 14th, 2021
Blue Box Games Studio changes it's Twitter header to an image that now reads, "ABANDONED PROLOGUE COMING Q1 2022"**
December 24th, 2021
Early on the 24th of December, the Blue Box official Twitter shared a link with their first blog post. Within the blog was a lot of new information regarding the development and state of the game, as well as more information regarding Prologue.
"Early 2021, we decided to fully focus on Abandoned and when we announced the announcement teaser in April, it did not achieve and meet our vision at all. Causing us to rework on the entire game.
Q1 2022 is going to be interesting for fans of Abandoned. With the game reveal being around the corner and the release of the Prologue coming closer and closer, we are working hard to make sure to showcase the game in the best and stable way possible."
In the website's FAQ also resides the information that Abandoned: Prologue is its own game with its own trophies, separate from Abandoned proper.
Deleted Tweets
At the time of this publication, Blue Box Game Studios' public Twitter (@BBGameStudios) now only has nineteen tweets. It's hard to say how many tweets were deleted and what all they entailed, but it's clear that with what's left publicly visible, it is the narrative Blue Box wants told.
The deleted tweets led people to believe Abandoned was canceled, which led to an official response from the studio regarding the supposed cancellation.
March 31st, 2022
"Dear Community,
Recently we have been bombarded with requests and questions regarding the development status for Abandoned. In regard to the latest rumors regarding Abandoned being canceled, our response to this, is that these rumors are false. We are working on the reveal via the Real Time Experience App and online-channels along with the Prologue of the game. These were initially planned for Q1 2022 but unfortunately we aren't ready yet as we underestimated our development roadmap. Therefore we have delayed the reveal and the release for Abandoned: Prologue. We will release Abandoned: Prologue when it's stable, good, and ready.
We are aware of your frustration and we deeply, sincerely apologize for this. We will continue to work on the game and we will notify you when we are ready.
Our sincere apologies.
-BLUE BOX Game Studios"
April 4th, 2022
In an interview with Destin Legarie over at IGN, game director Hasan Kahraman spoke to the effect the tweet deleting backlash had.
"I did not see that coming, I didn't think that the community would respond that way. Basically, the tweets were deleted because some of the concepts had changed, and I figured maybe just deleting the tweet and then tweeting more relevant information would be a better idea – which was actually not a good idea. I have learned now just to keep them. Even if the information or concept changed, just keep the older information because people eventually will see for themselves what the difference is and then see what's more actual."***
Soundtrack Woes
March 31st, 2022
Over at ScreenRant, Brianna Reeves found another link to the game and the ongoing controversy in a tweet from people allegedly working on the soundtrack to the game.
The tweet follows as such,
"We worked like 50-60 hours on this song. They said: This song will be in the game - and maybe in a teaser.
Every 6-12 weeks I get an email with: Sorry for the huge delay etc. We will work with a one-time fee etc.
It all started august 2021. Don't know, how to get help."-F4ST3X****
So: What Does It All Mean?
Games change during development and roadmaps with it - that much is true. But what could have been an interesting new survival-horror game from an untested developer has spiraled into something else. The amount of PR damage Blue Box Game Studios has done to itself is large - there's no way around that.
Sending a tweet out to poke the bear that is Silent Hill and Hideo Kojima fans as well as conspiracy theorists, even with innocent and well intentions, was not a smart move to say the least. It is a move that will stick with the game, the studio, and its director throughout its development and possibly past it.
It absolutely does NOT excuse any ill behavior - small or extreme - from fans. It is NEVER okay to send ANYONE a death threat.
Even though I have personal opinions about this situation, I will not speculate them here as the situation has been speculated to death.
At the end of the day, I hope Blue Box is doing well and not crunching to try and meet an internal deadline. I also hope they're able to look back and reflect on these continuous slip ups and recover from them. Game development is hard, and having limited resources as an independent developer much more so. It's even that much harder when the weight of the world rests upon your shoulders and all eyes are on you.
Written by Matthew Wright
* Disclaimer: Some of this information was not easy to find due to Blue Box Game Studios deleting tweets.** Twitter Banner image & Information taken from an article written by Semir Omerovic at AltChar: https://www.altchar.com/game-news/blue-box-confirm-abandoned-prologue-release-date-aoDK37b76PcZ*** Excerpts taken from an IGN interview conducted by Destin Legarie, and reported by Joe Skrebels: https://www.ign.com/articles/abandoned-interview-prologue-standalone-not-cancelled**** Information taken from an article written by Brianna Reeves over at ScreenRant: https://screenrant.com/abandoned-release-canceled-possible-blue-box-tweets-deleted/