After a tease for Abandoned, an upcoming first-person survival game, sparked speculation around a new Silent Hill game, Blue Box Game Studios founder Hasan Kahraman has today revealed his face to set the record straight on several matters, including the fact that he is not Hideo Kojima.
In addition to the video posted today, which shows Kahraman explaining that Abandoned is not a new Silent Hill title and the studio has no affiliation with Hideo Kojima, the company posted a statement saying, “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.”
Abandoned was revealed by Sony through the PlayStation Blog in April. Since then, things have been quiet on the new front. That is until the developer’s Twitter account posted, “Guess the name: Abandoned = (First Letter S, Last Letter L) Reveal closing in…” This tweet was enough for some fans to believe that Abandoned was, in fact, a new Silent Hill game, which lines up with the post. The tweet has since been taken down following the slew of speculation that followed.
Following this tweet, fans also picked up on Hasan Kahraman’s name, the initials of which are the same as Hideo Kojima’s. Given that Kojima’s last project with Konami was P.T., a playable teaser for what would have been Silent Hills, many made the link that Abandoned would be a PlayStation 5 exclusive Silent Hill title as Silent Hills would have been a PS4 exclusive.
In a statement to Jason Schreier at Bloomberg, Kahraman added that “It doesn’t matter how much I try to debunk all this. People don’t believe it. They just expect something that’s not out there. It bothers me.” Today’s statement is obviously the culmination of a lot of frustration over Abandoned being overshadowed by a fictional Silent Hill game. Unfortunately, he’s right that some fans will simply believe he’s lying and go on to convince themselves that a new Silent Hill Kojima game is the real product behind some kind of bizarre marketing campaign.
It’s now apparent that Abandoned isn’t a Silent Hill game, and Hasan Kahraman isn’t Hideo Kojima or an actor. In the video, Kahraman explains that he will work out a time for a Q&A session with fans to clear up any confusion and give some more information about the game to everyone. A new trailer for Abandoned is due to launch on June 25, which will certainly help redefine the lines between Blue Box Game Studios’ title and Konami’s beloved Silent Hill IP.
