‘Abandoned’ is NOT a horror game and won’t have an open world anymore, developer confirms after disastrous app launch

The much-awaited launch of the Realtime Experience app for the upcoming PS5-exclusive game “Abandoned” became a source of disappointment for many fans over the weekend. It appears that the string of bad news does not stop there as its developer announced it is scaling back on some gameplay features, along with the clarification that it is not a horror game.

‘Abandoned’ is not exactly a horror game

Since “Abandoned” was announced last April, the game has been described as a “cinematic horror survival shooter” on the PlayStation YouTube channel and an official PlayStation Blog post. However, an interview with developer Hasan Kahraman following the tumultuous Realtime Experience launch indicates that is not the case.

“‘Abandoned’ is a shooter/survival game,” Kahraman said in an interview with NME. “It has some horror elements in it but it’s not really a horror game.” The developer also insisted that the game, being developed by Blue Box Game Studios, is in no way attached with video game creator Hideo Kojima or the popular “Silent Hill” franchise.

Kahraman also revealed that the “Abandoned” team has decided to scale back some initial plans for the game. Aside from calling it a “horror” title, the game has also been advertised as having an open world setting. Now, Kahraman said, “It’s not really open world anymore – it’s a linear story.”

Hype turns to frustration

Kahraman’s recent interview comes after fans expressed disappointment over the launch of the “Abandoned” Realtime Experience app on PlayStation. It was supposed to be a venue to release trailers and demos. Considering how much attention the title has gotten over the last few months, PlayStation fans are desperate to see new content. Unfortunately, the app launched with nothing other than a teaser that runs for a few seconds, which the studio had already released on Twitter a few days earlier.

It is quite a rare scenario for an all-new IP from an independent developer to get so much attention way ahead of its launch. However, early teasers for the game have led to wild theories that it was a secret Kojima project. Wilder guesses even suggested that “Abandoned” could be part of the “Silent Hill” universe. A dedicated subreddit for these theories has even amassed nearly 10,000 Reddit users as of this writing.

However, as Kahraman pointed out, none of those theories were accurate. Unfortunately for Blue Box, the mix of inaccurate theories and frustrations over the “Abandoned” app has left more fans doubting the actual existence of the game.

The hype for “Abandoned” has now turned to frustration for many fans. Some have even started calling Blue Box scammers, and Kahraman said such accusations have made him depressed and are taking a toll on other developers.

“It’s not fun being labelled as a scammer, right? So, yeah, that’s the reason why people don’t feel comfortable right now showing their faces or even publicly announcing that they’re involved with ‘Abandoned,’” Kahraman added.