Blue Box Games Studios addresses Kojima rumors surrounding upcoming release Abandoned

The studio behind indie horror title Abandoned have released a statement after rumors began circulating that Hideo Kojima was secretly behind the project.

Blue Box Games Studios addressed the rumors on their website stating that: “We received several emails regarding the Hideo Kojima rumor. We have no association with Hideo Kojima nor do we claim to have any association nor was it our intention to claim such a statement.”

These rumors began after the official PlayStation Twitter account shared a sneak peek at Abandoned, which is due to release in Q4 of 2021 exclusively on PS5. 

What may have added more fuel to the fire though is Geoff Keighley - creator of the Summer Game Fest and noted super-fan of Kojima - reply to the tweet which featured a gif which said “hmm, very interesting.” This led some people to reply to Keighley’s tweet to ask what he knows about the game and to make reference to Kojima. However it’s more likely that Keighley may have just been hinting at something from this year’s Summer Game Fest.

There’s also been a lot of talk surrounding Kojima’s plans to release a new horror game lately, including one recently which hinted at a possible canceled Kojima Productions episodic horror game on Google Stadia. Considering that Abandoned is a “survival horror title with a focus on realism and immersion” it almost makes sense as to why fans of Kojima may have suspected his input. 

However, as cleared up in Blue Box’s statement, this just isn’t the case. The developers also stated that: “We are a small group of developers working on a passionate title we wanted to work on for a long time. We have been assisting other studios in the past with their projects and we wanted to work on our very first big project.”

The team also wrote a post on the PlayStation Blog sharing more information about Abandoned including how the game has been specifically designed with the PS5’s hardware in mind, when they plan to release it, and how they want players to feel whilst playing their immersive survival game. 

If you’re looking for more spooky games to play, take a look at our best horror games list.