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57 minutes ago, NMErickson said:

I’d say the majority have shifted to that conclusion already

I never thought otherwise, anyway.

 

58 minutes ago, NMErickson said:

“I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. The biggest thing that’s bugging me is just that people are labelling us as scammers.

It's only his own fault, unfortunately.

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A burning garbage truck keeps rolling down the hill. Since the theories have started turning into jokes under Kojima's tweets, it's now more interesting to see how many things Blue Box can fuck up in a row. I've also seen some rundowns of the studio's previous works, and their history is pretty rough.

 

I hope for two things: 

1 - people set their expectations correctly and don't overhype it based on the rumours;

2 - the studio finishes the game, and it's at least playable at launch.

Edited by Slava
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25 minutes ago, Slava said:

2 - the studio finishes the game, and it's at least playable at launch.

 

With the history of their past projects and all the hate that they are getting because of this... I really doubt so... But ngl, I still have a very little sliver of hope...

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26 minutes ago, DeepEyes7 said:

With the history of their past projects and all the hate that they are getting because of this... I really doubt so... But ngl, I still have a very little sliver of hope...

 

Yeah. Frankly, I think there's a high chance this doesn't end well. But I really do hope the game will be finished and will work fine. If Abandoned was their first project ever and they failed, I'd be like "Well, they ended up in a bad situation, the entire Internet had their eyes on them, they couldn't handle it and failed, it's fine. Forget about Abandoned and give them another chance". But given their history, this project may destroy them, because next time most people won't take them seriously anymore. Or at least that's how I see that scenario go down.

 

Not that I was interested in the game outside of all the mysterious connections, weird reveals, and crazy theories. But there are lots of other people who actually want to play it.

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2 hours ago, iriihutoR84 said:

 

They were given one blog post on the PS Blog and that's it. The rest of the hype and the app they built themselves. Not sure what you mean by "PlayStation studio logo". This certainly isn't published by PlayStation. Look at the PS Blog right now and you will see at least half a dozen indies featured on the first page so an indie game getting room on the PS Blog is not abnormal. It was Blue Box together with Silent Hill and Kojima fans who built this hype, not Sony. 

 

I mean this Playstation studio logo design, though they are part of it. They also been featured in State of Play if I remember correct. This app thing for an indie game is an overkill for me already anyway. To finalise, I have read here somewhere, very recently, some complains from Indie developers having big difficulties with Sony, and was all about the game, that in the end been canceled for Playstation... Can not remember where, unfortunatelly.

 

For me, still have an interest about the game, becuase they promised some realism in this and that, hope it will be something close to dayz in terms of survivng and combat, and a lot of things could be ignored. Not believing that their storytelling could possibly be that genuinely awesome, to say, I am sure of it.

Edited by Bloodytears1666
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1 hour ago, Bloodytears1666 said:

 

I mean this Playstation studio logo design, though they are part of it. They also been featured in State of Play if I remember correct. This app thing for an indie game is an overkill for me already anyway. To finalise, I have read here somewhere, very recently, some complains from Indie developers having big difficulties with Sony, and was all about the game, that in the end been canceled for Playstation... Can not remember where, unfortunatelly.

 

For me, still have an interest about the game, becuase they promised some realism in this and that, hope it will be something close to dayz in terms of survivng and combat, and a lot of things could be ignored. Not believing that their storytelling could possibly be that genuinely awesome, to say, I am sure of it.

 

There is no PlaySation studio logo design for Abandoned or Blue Box. They have not been featured in a State of Play. The app was made by Blue Box Studios and not Sony. 

 

It is absolutely true that many indie developers have complained about it being more troublesome to publish on PlayStation compared to other platform but Blue Box was given one blog post and nothing else. Many indies are given blog posts if you visit the PS Blog. Sony has not given them some big special treatment. This hype has pretty much been created by Kojima and Silent Hill fans with Blue Box feeding them along the way. 

 

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6 hours ago, iriihutoR84 said:

 

There is no PlaySation studio logo design for Abandoned or Blue Box. They have not been featured in a State of Play. The app was made by Blue Box Studios and not Sony. 

 

It is obvious app wasn't made by Sony, it is very clear. Its existence simply questionable. Featured Indie games on PlayStation mostly have full length trailers with game play and Abandoned showed a teaser with generic voice followed by generic subtitles on generic trees background, and having the app with 3 seconds teaser, which making took additional month. All in all it looks like student home works for 3D design class, than indie game made exclusively for PlayStation 5. It is still very suspicious treatment for this kind of a studio, that has zero games in their history. No wonder people had logical conclusion that there must be something special behind it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Why is there a 5 second footage in the app with a size of 5GB?

As a result of technical issues we made it very hard for us last minute. We had to trim the opening teaser. The 5GB is the actual size of the full length. We will release the full teaser soon. We sincerely apologize for this. - This crack me up.

 

I mean they stated a couple of times that BB doesn't have any relation to Konami, Kojima and Silent Hills and people are still clinging to that nonsense.

Edited by Ptirle
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Still they like to drop hints for people to continue linking them to Kojima...


If you ask me... This...


What is the Playable Prologue?
The Playable Prologue is a standalone game with its own set of Trophy's on PS5.


For me that is a reference to Ground Zeroes, the same thing that Kojima did with MGSV....

 

I'm not saying that this confirms anything, because this became annoying, I'm just saying that this fuckers keep posting that they doesn't have any connection with Kojima and still keep releasing those things to grab attention.... Same crap they did with the background of a Big Boss lookalike...

 

Edited by DeepEyes7
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^^True. Didn’t think of that.
 

-What is the Playable Prologue?

The Playable Prologue is a standalone game with its own set of Trophy's on PS5.

-Will Abandoned be available in a physical form?

Yes. Abandoned will be available both digital and physical. The Prologue is only in digital form.

 

Those are some lofty goals. I’d be shocked if they deliver on these. Hats off to ‘em if they do.

 

-What makes Abandoned unique and stand out from other games?

Abandoned has a new narrative, presented in realistic gameplay with a cinematic experience, Abandoned emulates a realistic approach to survival.

-Is Abandoned a horror game?

Abandoned is a horror shooter/survival game. While the primary focus isn't entirely horror.

 

I do like the sound and premise of this. Survival and horror are two of my favorite genres. The Forest did it right but it wasn’t a “cinematic experience” like this claims to be.

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  • 6 months later...

meh this is so cringe. at this point I'd rather go with the 'con artist theory' and it was all just a gimmick to get twitter clout. because if it's really a Kojima's game, then we got off to the wrong foot, and this type of marketing is not benefiting anyone 

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https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/03/abandoned-ps5-dev-responds-to-rumours-of-cancellation

 

I'm assuming that this is the article mentioned above, which has since been updated with a statement from Blue Box. It seems painfully clear to me that whatever the hell Aboandoned really is, it was never ready for primetime and should never have been announced at all.

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Hasan Kahraman was interviewed on Sacred Symbols. I haven't listened to the episode, but people are saying he didn't give a sensible answer to any question about the game.

 

Edit: just finished listening to the episode. Kahraman was nervous the entire time. He did give some answers, but when it came to topics like budget and teams working on the project, everything got very unclear, and the answers felt like BS. He did admit that he mishandled the announcement and communication. And he also spent time to damage control regarding the image with the timeline that shows their projects.

 

Yeah, there's nothing much to add. There's not going to be less scepticism after this (or any) interview. At this point, stay quiet and let actual footage speak for itself (If it exists and ever sees the light of day).

Edited by Slava
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  • 1 month later...

 

Quote

Blue Box Dev Behind PS5's Abandoned Misled Fans, Solicited Business Deals In "Toxic" Chatroom

 

Sources told GameSpot that Blue Box is making little progress as its lead developer shares uninspiring teases and flip-flops on the truth with an exclusive fan chatroom he organized.

 

June 3, 2022

 

It's been over a year since Abandoned was first announced on the PlayStation Blog, and by now you may have heard about the controversial game in one of several very different contexts. Shortly after its reveal, some fans began speculating that the game was a secret Hideo Kojima project, perhaps even his return to the Silent Hill franchise after releasing P.T. eight years ago. Seeking to counter their claims, others pointed to Blue Box Game Studios' well-documented and lackluster development history, arguing that Abandoned is just another in a long line of games announced by the studio that will never see a release.

 

The lead developer on the project, Hasan Kahraman, has said Abandoned is exactly what he always said it was: an indie survival-horror about a lone survivor stuck in the woods with a cult. However, in the past year, onlookers have also seen it become a game about a rampant superintelligent AI. More recently, it was said to be a game about vampires. As it stands, there is no meaningful evidence that Abandoned exists in any real way--though there is a long trail of dubious business deals, uninspiring leaks, and a chatroom full of fans, including at least one child, where the game's lead developer has misled a captive audience for months.

 

Despite once being planned to release on PS5 in the fall of 2021, several people close to Kahraman tell GameSpot that there is no game--at least not one that is actively being worked on. The reason for that isn't as fun as it being part of some long-con Kojima ARG like fans once suspected. In reality, those close to Kahraman tell GameSpot, despite Kahraman's public claims that the game's development is coming along, he has privately admitted Abandoned is on hold and he first needs to fund its development with a playable prologue, which our sources indicate he doesn't seem to be in a hurry to create.

 

Interviews with more than half a dozen people who have had close contact with Kahraman since September 2021 have detailed a picture of a game in disarray and a developer who promises a lot, including paid work for fans, but delivers very little.

 

Two months after Abandoned's original reveal invited a brief spark of fan theories, Kahraman shared a since-deleted tweet from Blue Box's Twitter account that said a reveal was "closing in" and offered a hint that the game's real name starts with S and ends with L. By overtly leaning into the Silent Hill speculation, Kahraman reignited the theory that there was more to this game than players were initially led to believe, and so began the summer of Abandoned. Multiple Discord servers, subreddits, and other forums were created with the sole purpose of trying to find the proverbial curtain Kojima and/or Konami were hiding behind.

The now-deleted tweet sent by Blue Box reignited Silent Hill fan theories two months after they quieted down. The now-deleted tweet sent by Blue Box reignited Silent Hill fan theories two months after they quieted down.

It was not an unreasonable belief--after all, it's something Kojima had done twice before. First, when he briefly hid behind a fake studio, Moby Dick, and used a stand-in developer with the pseudonym Joakim Mogren to sell the charade, before revealing that he was behind the stunt and the team's game was actually his next project, Metal Gear Solid V, under Konami. Later, P.T. was attributed to 7780s, another studio invented wholecloth so Kojima could surprise players with what the playable teaser was actually teasing: a long-awaited Silent Hill sequel.

 

For a few days, Abandoned could've arguably passed for another Kojima ruse. But as theories around Abandoned grew more outlandish each day, forums began to express pareidolia, a wish-fulfilling drive to find patterns where they don't exist. These numerous patterns have been well-documented and already debunked. But what's important is not that fans gathered to discuss the game, but that Kahraman seems to have been there too, following the community he helped create as it tirelessly crafted theories about the true nature of his indie game.

 

Over time, he seemed to bend the direction of his game and its concept to retrofit what fans were saying. When they thought it was Silent Hill, he released a brief teaser in the game's strange, almost featureless standalone app on PS5 that included music very much like that of Silent Hill's longtime composer Akira Yamaoka. When the fans thought he was teasing a Metal Gear Solid project, he reworked the horror story centered on a cult to instead focus on a fourth-wall-breaking AI program and secret government cover-ups.

 

There are many things still mysterious about Blue Box, such as who else is on the team. Kahraman has said roughly 50 people, including outsourcing studios, are working on Abandoned. The Dutch Chamber of Commerce confirmed with GameSpot that Blue Box was founded in 2015 with 10 employees. To date, Blue Box's registration with the Chamber of Commerce has never been updated to reflect a different number of employees, though a representative told GameSpot it is the business' responsibility to update details such as this. Kahraman did update its registration twice in the last seven years: once to change the business address and another time to register an alternate trade name, Pixel Molecule, which the company appears not to have used.

Much of what GameSpot has learned recently about the developer comes from those with knowledge of a private and very exclusive online group chatroom. Sources say since last fall, this has been a space where Kahraman would share game materials such as screenshots, animations, and even a page of the game's script. The group's original iteration was composed of roughly a dozen fans from one of the Discord servers that sprang up to study the mysteries surrounding the game. Kahraman hand-picked who to invite based on who he "researched," he once told the group.

 

Those in his group chat were often sworn to secrecy--some were even made to sign a vague NDA, of which GameSpot obtained a copy. According to sources, Kahraman sought agreeable fans, and when some members of the group would challenge him on his empty promises and discrepancies between public and private comments, he would kick them out or make a new, sometimes smaller group with only new and/or still-agreeable fans. The group has gone through roughly half a dozen iterations, pulling in various fans from different social media platforms. For a while, some members stuck around because they still believed in the project; others simply liked the exclusive access.

 

Those with knowledge of the group have described Kahraman as duplicitous and prone to mood swings, often getting into heated arguments when members of the group would ask for progress updates or question his honesty. He'd then profusely apologize later, sometimes attributing his outbursts to the stress he was under due to the wave of fan theories.

 

One person told GameSpot that Kahraman admitted to keeping some people in the group just so they wouldn't leak things he had previously shared with them. He took to sending voice messages, which sources felt was a strategy used by him to avoid screenshots of conversations being taken. This is where "the most egregious things were said," according to a source. He left at least one member feeling "hurt" and others frustrated or confused at how he would say one thing publicly, then another in private to his inner circle.

 

Often, when members leaked things he shared, Kahraman would publicly deny that the materials were a part of his project while he privately sought to identify the leakers. On one occasion, Kahraman put an audio file on his studio website that he wanted to show the group as the latest exclusive asset. The cryptic audio, which is now available on YouTube, was poorly translated into Japanese as though it was done using a program such as Google Translate. Sources felt the use of Japanese was another way Kahraman chose to lean into the Kojima theories even as he simultaneously refuted them. The audio tied into the "Zero Cell" plot Kahraman was pivoting to at the time, which sources say sounded like a Metal Gear Solid copycat.

 

But when it was shared online because someone outside the group found it, Kahraman publicly claimed his website was hacked and that he didn't know it was even there. Messages obtained by GameSpot show Kahraman saying he wanted to find out who leaked it to the Redditor who ultimately shared it widely. A source said this display of blatant dishonesty made things awkward in the group.

 

Kahraman would speak of potential business partners as "scammers," including Nuare Studio, an established team he once planned to commission for artwork on the game. According to sources, Kahraman used similar sentiments to describe various producers including Summer Games Fest's Geoff Keighley and the team behind GamesRadar's Future Games Show. Whenever one of the game's scheduled showings was delayed, which happened several times in the last year, sources say he was quick to place blame elsewhere.

 

He sought to form both a working and romantic relationship with one member of the group and promised to pay them for work done on the game's PlayStation Trophy-related art after the studio began to receive revenue for the game's release. He said in March of 2022 that he planned to visit the prospective business and romantic partner in-person two months later when he'd be "free," which the person took to mean Kahraman expected to be done with the game's prologue by then. One of several splits in the group chat also separated the pair on both social and professional terms and, according to sources, they haven't spoken since.

 

In another situation, he asked a member of the group to act as his shipping partner by storing some of the game's eventual physical copies in the US to prevent Kahraman from needing to find a storage facility by traveling from The Netherlands to the US himself. He offered to both pay the fan $1,500 for this, which he said would cover expenses with some money left over as "profit," and set them up with a Blue Box Game Studios email address so they could correspond with Sony. He admitted the final details, including payment, were still to be determined. A few days after sending the fan a form from Sony Interactive Entertainment to fill out, which included his own home address, Kahraman rescinded the odd deal.

Kahraman sought business arrangements with more than one fan in his chatroom. Kahraman sought business arrangements with more than one fan in his chatroom.

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Oddly, the youngest person in the group was just 12 years old, and was described by other members as loud and rude. On one occasion while the group chatted in a PlayStation voice party, this young fan told another member of the group to kill themself, while Kahraman remained quiet on his end. Other members privately consoled the person and expressed disappointment that Kahraman did nothing about it.

 

Since last fall, the group has gone through several iterations but has maintained one commonality: It's been "toxic." What began as a place for eager fans to socialize with the developer of a game that was in the spotlight had become more like a pledge of allegiance and secrecy to someone who conducts themselves in a questionable manner. Sources say members felt like they were meant to support the game and praise Kahraman in between rounds of Rainbow Six Siege with him--a game he frequently invited some of them to play deep into the night--or they could get out.

 

Some who have spoken to GameSpot said they have been afraid to speak out on the game's lack of progress or Kahraman's erratic behavior due to the aforementioned NDA he had some members fill out and sign. The document asked for their private addresses, among other information. However, a copy of that NDA acquired by GameSpot features a lack of legal language, suggesting it was drawn up hastily and may be non-binding. It also includes some grammatical errors similar to those Kahraman makes in his writings. Those with knowledge of the group have decided to speak up more recently as materials he shared have begun to leak en masse.

A copy of the NDA Kahraman asked some fans in his chat group to sign. A copy of the NDA Kahraman asked some fans in his chat group to sign.

Most recently, a trove of materials shared by Kahraman to the group chat over the course of several months found its way to places like Twitter and Reddit. Some of these materials were verified as having come from Kahraman by GameSpot earlier this year during our ongoing investigation. Among the pieces newly revealed to the public is artwork with the words "Silent Hill 5" on it, using the same asset of a character's legs in jeans and dark shoes that the developer has utilized in several other items both public and private.

 

Initially, Kahraman wanted to once more publicly label the leaks fake, but he was convinced by others in private to "come clean" and admit they are real in a since-deleted tweet that he released jointly with a YouTuber who had been following the story. Shortly after publishing the statement on Kahraman's behalf, the YouTuber deleted his tweet and said he no longer had faith in Kahraman's version of events. Even in that statement, Kahraman alleged the assets weren't from Abandoned.

 

According to sources, this happened often in the group. Kahraman would share something, the group would be unimpressed and possibly even leak it to various outsiders, at which point Kahraman would say he was just testing their loyalty and that the assets are not from Abandoned after all. This began to happen more after the Zero Cell audio leak, at which time Kahraman was said to have become more suspicious of those in the group.

 

It appears the recent run of Abandoned leaks is a reaction to the many Silent Hill leaks in the news. It's as though credible reports of a real Silent Hill game are stirring up frustrated reminders that Abandoned was once thought to be that game, but in fact is no game at all.

 

Kahraman used to tell the group he was actively working on Abandoned, but as time went on, he would fail to show much of anything that seemed genuine or compelling, often even missing self-imposed deadlines. For instance, after saying he had a reveal planned for a day of the week, that day would come and go without a new development.

 

GameSpot is aware of another instance of a similar tactic by Kahraman, in which he told us Abandoned would be shown across three separate dates spanning Summer 2021 including Gamescom. The game failed to materialize all three times, and according to public remarks from Gamescom producer Geoff Keighley, Kahraman failed to send him any materials.

 

Sources say Kahraman eventually admitted to the PSN group that Abandoned is not in development, but to this day maintains that a playable prologue is. As previously mentioned, the sales of that prologue are intended to fund the full game and attract investors, but the materials he's shared with the private group have only caused confusion. He would promise play tests, sometimes to even just one person in the group, but no play tests were ever actually presented. Some members had a running joke that the game should be called "Wallbandoned" because so much of what Kahraman showed them were in-game walls and nothing more. Those close to the situation question how much progress is actually being made on even the prologue.

 

A major obstacle in that regard is how the game has been reimagined several times, from cult horror to action game and back, to a new vampire concept that one source said sounded like a Resident Evil ripoff. In June of 2021, he told GameSpot that a multiplayer beta was on the way, but no such beta has ever come to be, and sources say even among his inner circle, it seems Kahraman has stopped talking about multiplayer in Abandoned.

 

Most recently, it's said that the game is back to telling a story about a cult, but it seems not to matter. Those who spoke to GameSpot say he never appears to be working on the game or its prologue. Since last fall, he has so often been chatting with the group or playing Siege straight through the night that those close to the situation feel the time for meaningful progress doesn't seem available. They expect Abandoned to end up like the last several games announced by Blue Box: discarded after little progress and without much more than a reveal trailer. His past games were virtually scrubbed from the internet and this one would seem destined for the same fate. Only this time, and for the first time in his career, Kahraman has an audience for his game of smoke and mirrors, and it's one he seems unable or unwilling to manage.

 

A representative for PlayStation did not respond for comment. Kahraman declined to comment.

 

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/blue-box-dev-behind-ps5s-abandoned-misled-fans-solicited-business-deals-in-toxic-chatroom/1100-6504049/

Edited by ziggypossum
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