It is also for this very reason that audiences are speculating that BLUE BOX is a front that’s been purposely designed to troll gamers and hide a big-budget title.
What happened with the Abandoned reveal app on PS5?
Before anything else, let’s talk about the elephant in the room - the Abandoned app. For months, BLUE BOX has promised that it will release an app for Abandoned on the PS5, which supposedly would allow the studio to drop news about the upcoming first-person survival horror title. After being delayed multiple times, BLUE BOX finally unveiled the highly anticipated Abandoned app, and… well, there was absolutely nothing revealed there. Save for a video teaser that BLUE BOX itself had uploaded literally hours before the original app reveal date, the app didn’t contain anything. Although this left many fans disappointed, David Jaffe, the creator of God of War, has another take on it.
A small indie dev would not do this sort of bait and switch. Kojima will be forgiven for it; but what the app just showed? Man, a small dev would never take such a troll-y risk. Kojima involved: 90% sure. pic.twitter.com/Xdrt3aZYOz — DAVID SCOTT JAFFE (@davidscottjaffe) August 13, 2021 This wouldn’t be the first time that Abandoned has been linked with Kojima. It’s happened numerous times in the past, with the most recent set of rumors involving a teaser image for Abandoned that includes someone very similar to Metal Gear’s Big Boss in the background. For context, Big Boss is the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, which was Kojima’s last game for Konami. Just days after the image was posted, a Russian leaker claimed to know that Abandoned is a Metal Gear game for sure and that Konami, the owners of the Metal Gear IP, is just taking notes from their former employee and fan-favorite auteur. The Abandoned app reveal was supposed to shed some light on this. Instead, all audiences got was a series of blank boxes. The 5GB app takes you to a language selection screen that has a disclaimer saying that all the app contains is just a series of demos and trailers of Abandoned running on the PS5. It goes as far as to warn users that all the “content is rendered in 3D images”, which contradicts BLUE BOX’s earlier statement that the app will help audiences experience the game’s “high-end graphics”. Once you’ve gone past through these trivial screens, the app takes you to a menu that shows you a clip from a teaser trailer that BLUE BOX already released a few days ago. If it’s any consolation, there are three more boxes under the Trailers submenu. All three are empty at the moment, with the caption “Available soon!” that suggests that BLUE BOX intends to use the app again soon. Meanwhile, it’s interesting to see a Gameplay Demos section too - especially when the app states earlier that it doesn’t contain any playable content. So, either the app is contradicting itself on purpose or the gameplay demo will be more of a showcase. Personally, we’re inclined to agree with Kratos’ creator. It was deflating to wait for a reveal that made much ado about nothing, but a studio that has the audacity to pull off something like this and a potential bait-and-switch in the future has to have some clout in the gaming industry. If it’s not Kojima, who is currently working on Death Stranding: Director’s Cut on the PS5, behind BLUE BOX, then we’re hoping it’s Konami or someone with the full backing of Sony.
