There's a lot of buzz surrounding the upcoming horror title Abandoned, though not necessarily for positive reasons. Last year, rumors circulated saying that Blue Box's game was a revival of Silent Hills, the defunct project that was in development by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro before it was canceled by Konami in 2015. The speculation had repeatedly been refuted, but it may have already been too late by that point. On top of that, the studio is once again having to fight back against some new conjectures that have surfaced.
In an email sent directly to PC Gamer, Blue Box has made it clear that Abandoned has not been, well, abandoned, and that it's still very much in development. According to the report, the prologue for the game will be released when the developer is ready, adding that the recent allegations are not true and that they are merely the result of "angry fans." There was also an accusation that one person has been posing as one of the company's business partners.
The email is in response to a report that claims there's no evidence that Abandoned is being worked on. An article from GameSpot has said that numerous people who claim to be close to the project have confirmed that the game is currently on hold due to lack of funding. However, the email to PC Gamer completely refutes this idea, so it does seem as though it's still in development. Many have, understandably perhaps, been prepared to believe the news that it had been canceled, as the game has been the source of controversy for the studio, specifically in relation to the aforementioned Silent Hills link, which, it should be reiterated here, has been denied.
Since the rumor that it was going to be a new Silent Hill game, the team has been under fire by the surrounding community. It reached a pretty serious point when the Abandoned studio began receiving death threats. A representative from Blue Box posted to Twitter last October to urge the treats to stop, referring to the team as "human beings," adding that everyone at the studio is aware of negative reactions, and pleasing with fans to give the people working on the game some space.
There hasn't been a huge amount of information about the game over the past few months. However, there was some Abandoned story and character details revealed in April. The overall narrative, at least from an official standpoint, is that the game is very much still in development, and there will be something launching at some point. It comes down to fans just needing to be a bit more patient, it seems.
Abandoned is currently in development for PC and PS5.
Source: PC Gamer
