(Update 4/7/2021 9:00 EST: It has been revealed that Hideo Kojima is currently in talks with Microsoft to publish his next game as an Xbox exclusive. Thus, the speculation in this article that he is secretly in charge of the development of Abandoned is likely untrue. The original story follows below.)
The PlayStation 5 is getting a brand-new exclusive survival horror game titled Abandoned, and it looks to be unnervingly realistic. The upcoming PS5 indie game focus on a man who has been kidnapped and finds himself, as the title would imply, abandoned. A teaser trailer for the survival horror game was released alongside first details, with gameplay meant to be coming soon.
Although the PS5 is still hard to get, fans of the console, both present and future, will have lots to look forward to. Titles such as Abandoned are padding out an already meaty 2021 line-up with games like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Horizon: Forbidden West, and the untitled God of War sequel. Although those three aforementioned titles are big AAA games, Abandoned looks to scratch a smaller scale, indie itch with some sort of backing from Sony.
Abandoned is a survival horror game where protagonist Jason Longfield wakes up in a forest, seemingly with ties to a cult, and although there aren't any dangers present in the teaser trailer, it seems there's something very sinister going on. Whether this leans more into cult fighting or inches toward a more psychological angle like The Blair Witch Project remains to be seen, but it already has a lot of similarities to Resident Evil Village. Developer Blue Box Game Studios is promising a lot of realism, such as strategic, nerve-wracking combat and detailed audio to immerse the player in the anxiety-riddled world.
Abandoned is scheduled for Q4 2021 and has a gameplay demo coming soon, but some internet sleuths believe there's something bigger happening with this game. Theories have begun circulating that this may be Hideo Kojima's next game. Kojima is known for his strange marketing tactics, such as announcing a game under the guise of something else entirely. Both Metal Gear Solid V and the now-canceled Silent Hills were revealed this way, and Abandoned could be just weird enough to draw comparisons to the fabled P.T. Tinfoil hat theorists also noted that the game director's name, Hasan Kahraman, has the same initials as Kojima's.
The inimitable Hideo Kojima is also revealing his next game soon, according to people who work with him. Whether or not Abandoned is that game is a mystery, but it looks to be an interesting project nonetheless. PlayStation put the trailer for this game on its own YouTube channel, even though the studio responsible for it has next to no history. It's possible that Sony just found Abandoned to be really interesting and wanted to help promote it and showcase PS5 tech, but maybe there really is something larger. It's all speculation right now, but either way, the game looks to be really interesting and tense no matter who's making it.
Source: PlayStation