Hideo Kojima has called the “developer” of Abandoned a nuisance, as he addresses the links to the game for the first time.
Abandoned was announced back in 2021 and somehow managed to be featured on the PlayStation Blog. The game looked to be a first-person title which appears to have been inspired by the likes of the Blair Witch Project.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane
Almost instantly, folks on social media believed it to be a secret Hideo Kojima game. However, at the time, the alleged lead developer at Blue Box Game Studios, Hasan Kahraman dispelled those rumours. Yet in later months, that didn’t stop him from playing into those rumours by posting very Kojima-esque tweets.
Fans soon grew frustrated at not only the lack of updates for Abandoned but more so that Kahraman seemingly continued to take advantage of the Silent Hill connections without substance. Kahraman would then reportedly receive death threats from the community. No matter how frustrated one can get, that is never cool.
Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, Hasan Kahraman began deleting historic tweets related to Abandoned. This made people think that the game may never have existed. It’s also worth keeping in mind that Abandoned was supposed to release in late 2021, but the game has apparently vanished from the face of the earth.
The developer claimed Abandoned hasn’t been abandoned
Kahraman later tweeted to address those rumours that the game hasn’t been abandoned. Still, it was certainly an odd move to delete those tweets, wouldn’t you say? However, as reported by GameSpot in June 2022, reports claimed that Hasan Kahraman misled fans in a toxic Discord chat room.
Individuals that claimed to be part of that Discord chatroom stated that the game “is not actively being worked on” as well as outright saying “there is no game” in development. Furthermore, members of the chat room were reportedly required to sign an NDA. Worse still, Kahraman allegedly promised paid work to fans, which ultimately came to nothing.
It was claimed that Kahraman went as far as offering to pay someone in the chat room $1,500 USD to store physical copies of the game and even created individuals that were offered “work”, a blue Box email address. Again, that “work” failed to come to fruition.
So, we’re caught up, for now. Well for the first time, Hideo Kojima has addressed those rumours linking him to Abandoned. When speaking on the Brain Structure podcast along with friend and host of The Game Awards, Geoff Keighley, Kojima was asked about the speculation.
Keighley told Kojima that he thought the developer was repeating the Moby Dick campaign prior to the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
“Geoff, you remember when we did that Moby Dick thing?” said Kojima. “You were in on the whole thing and that was pretty fun. But people should know that I wouldn’t do the same thing twice. I’ve never spoken with Hasan.”
Hideo Kojima distanced himself from Abandoned
Kojima went on to speak more on the links to Abandoned. “Well, this one I really didn’t understand at first. Users just kept sending me pictures of this Hasan,” he said. “They still send me collages and deep-fake images, like 20 a day. It’s really quite a nuisance. This has been going on for nearly two years now.”
However, the developer didn’t stop there. “The game is yet to be released, right? I don’t think there’s much he can do or say at this point, but if he releases the game then people might understand. So, maybe he should just hurry up and release it. It’ll die down after that. I’m not involved in any way.”
While seemingly frustrated, but at the same time remaining polite, Hideo Kojima offered some encouragement for the Abandoned developer. Kojima said that the Abandoned developer should use the “buzz” and “boost morale” by creating something good from the “fake news” and distance itself away from the Silent Hill connection.
Will we ever see Abandoned?
It remains to be seen if Abandoned really has been abandoned. However, at this point, surely the falsely generated hype is only doomed to fail? That’s assuming the game really exists, and if it ever releases.
What are your thoughts on the tactics of Blue Box Studios and do you believe that Abandoned will ever release? Let us know across our social media channels.
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Featured Image Credit: Kojima Productions/Source: The Gamer