Blue Box: Abandoned tech demo and prologue coming in 2022

It was a rough year for Blue Box Game Studios and I’m not just referring to the pandemic. After announcing their game, Abandoned, as a PlayStation 5 exclusive in early April, the small indie developer made misstep after misstep throughout the year.

Abandoned is billed as a first-person cinematic horror survival shooter — with an emphasis on emulating realistic survival — that is set in a massive open world environment. However, the lack of meaningful details since the game’s teaser coupled with some odd social media posts led to some wild conspiracies and rumors throughout the year. The most popular theory being that Blue Box is a secret studio for Hideo Kojima and Abandoned is actually code for a new Silent Hill project.

The rumors became so distracting that studio head Hasan Kahraman had to actually had to put out multiple statements and even a video of himself to prove he was, in fact, real and that the game studio was legitimate. Still, not everyone was sold.

And then, of course, there was the disastrous launch of the Abandoned “Realtime Experience” app on PS5 which turned out to be nothing more than a five second teaser. It was basically a short cinematic that offered little more than a glimpse into Abandoned’s dark and brooding tone along with the promise of a trailer and playable Prologue “coming soon.” Neither of them were released in 2021. That led to even more criticism of the studio and did little to dispel the conspiracies that Abandoned isn’t a real game.

Naturally, Blue Box is eager to turn the page on 2021 and are ready to approach 2022 with some renewed vigor. In an end of the year dev blog, the studio acknowledged the mistakes they made and referred to it as a “huge learning curve for us.” They assured fans they don’t want to make the same mistakes again.

Which leads us to the promise of a Tech Demo and Prologue game reveal coming in 2022.

"With the start of the new year, we begin with a Tech Demo in the Realtime Experience app via a patch update bundled with a redesigned Realtime Experience app for a better user experience. The Tech Demo demonstrates the technology behind Abandoned in realtime showcasing visuals, audio and the DualSense Wireless Controllers’ haptic feedback feature that adds a new layer to the horror experience."

Blue Box promised Q1 2022 will be “interesting” for fans of Abandoned. They say the reveal is right around the corner and the Prologue is close. It’s unclear if the Prologue or Tech Demo will come first, or at the same time, or even at all. At this point, I’m still not entirely convinced this whole thing isn’t one giant prank.

Although Q1 would seemingly refer to the time between January and March 2022, I wouldn’t be surprised if they launch it on April 1st as some sort of April Fools’ Day prank.

Blue Box Game Studios has a lot to prove right now and will be viewed closely under the microscope throughout 2022, especially with these new promises. I know they are supposedly a small studio, but they are really setting the bar high once again which leads me to believe they really haven’t learned their lesson from 2021.