Once again, Blue Box Games Studios has teased (another) tie between its upcoming game Abandoned and Hideo Kojima. However, this time around, it’s Metal Gear instead of Silent Hill that makes the connection. In the image “Abandoned Realtime Experience” is in the foreground, but in the background is a blurred image of what appears to be a man with a patch over his left eye. Fans are taking that as another hint that this game isn’t what it seems.
Is Abandoned a Metal Gear Solid or a Silent Hill game?
https://twitter.com/BBGameStudios/status/1420089120362270721
While there were plenty of hints that Abandoned might be a Silent Hill game, Blue Box Game Studios Game Director Hasan Kahraman has publicly refuted having any connection with Kojima or Konami several times. Despite this, the peculiarity of Blue Box’s behavior has spurred conspiracies that Abandoned isn’t just an indie horror game but an ARG for something bigger.
While some fans thought the background image in the Abandoned teaser is a reference to Big Boss, that character has a patch over his right eye. Instead, if this is meant to infer a relationship with Metal Gear, the character it would have to portray has to be either Solidus Snake or Old Snake. This would mean the theory that this is somehow meant to be a conclusion to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is incorrect.
Of course, the teaser might not mean to state any connection to Abandoned and Metal Gear at all. Perhaps it’s just another hint that Kojima is involved. More realistically, Blue Box Game Studios really is an indie developer that’s running the razor edge to continue getting free publicity without explicitly violating Konami or Kojima’s IP. With this teaser, Blue Box could easily claim, “It’s just a guy with an eyepatch,” and pretend like it doesn’t know exactly what it’s doing.
The Abandoned Realtime Experience teaser is available for pre-load on PS5 starting on July 31. When it finally debuts on August 10 we may finally get some answers, but until then, Blue Box seems intent on keeping us scratching our heads.