Abandoned App Goes Out Not with a Bang, but a Whimper

Back in late June everyone was talking about Blue Box Game Studios and their enigmatic PlayStation 5 exclusive, Abandoned. The situation was so unusual for some gamers that theories started to appear that Blue Box Game Studios is actually Kojima getting ready to finally release Silent Hills. It was an interesting couple of days, to say the least, with players expecting the forthcoming Abandoned app finally giving some answers. Until it unexpectedly got delayed until sometime in Aug. 2021. Now that players have finally seen what Blue Box Game Studios was working on, the response was a wide variety of emotions ranging from laughter to frustration.

The days leading up to the highly anticipated Aug. 10 release were an interesting shift in attitudes. Theories moved from being really specific, to vague things like Kojima wearing a shirt and backpack a specific way or the time on his Walkman, with a growing number of players frustrated with Hasan’s constant hype. And, when the trailer was set to go live, two very important things happened. First, Blue Box Game Studios tweeted a brief clip showing a man walking, with those eagerly anticipating the apps first trailer shocked at it not appearing due to technical difficulties.

Naturally, attitudes and beliefs shifted once again. Some saw this failure as planned, expecting it to go live on Aug. 12, the same day P.T. released 7 years ago, with others guessing it would go live on Friday the 13th. While the latter happened, the outcome went from being a joke to reality that Hasan hinted at, though probably not in the way intended.

The tweet, found above, ended up being the highly anticipated teaser. All this time, theories and questions for something players both already had and Blue Box Game Studios simply didn’t mention was already out. Perhaps the most amusing detail wasn’t the content itself, but the countless reports of there being no 3D audio or advance DualSense functionality, both of which were a huge selling point of the app in the first place.

This outcome didn’t quite kill the rumors, with some willing to wait for the first trailer or see what Gamescom, which takes place next week, reveals. However, this looks to be confirmation of our conclusion back in June of Blue Box Game Studios being nothing more than a small developer.

Naturally, if this turns out to be something else we will revisit the topic, but for now I think we can safely abandon one of the unusual rides in gaming history.