Abandoned director on deleted tweets: "I didn't think that the community would respond that way"
The developer has explained why it deleted tweets about the game's future
Abandoned's director has explained the reasoning behind the recently deleted tweets surrounding the game and shared some details on its upcoming playable prologue.
In an interview with IGN, director Hasan Kahraman echoed previous statements from developer Blue Box Game Studios that the cinematic survival horror title has not been cancelled. This follows Blue Box deleting a series of tweets that mentioned the studio's future plans for Abandoned, leading to speculation that, true to its name, the game had actually been abandoned.
Kahraman says that the team deleted these tweets in an effort to erase outdated information about the game. He also expressed his surprise that the studio's actions led to uncertainty over Abandon's future.
"I did not see that coming," he said. "I didn't think that the community would respond that way. Basically, the tweets were deleted because some of the concept has changed, and I figured maybe just deleting the tweet and then tweeting more relevant information would be a better idea – which was actually not a good idea."
Kahraman also shed more light on the upcoming Abandoned prologue, which has been delayed indefinitely, confirming that it will be a standalone game. "The Prologue is not a demo," he explained. "People keep saying it's a demo. It's not a demo. It's actually a standalone game, right? It has a price tag. It's low because it's probably about an hour, two hours of gameplay."
He also offered more details on what exactly fans should expect from the prologue. "It's actually more like an opportunity for gamers to get introduced to the story of the game, to the gameplay, because it's different," said Kahraman. "It's our version of saying, 'This is what we believe how a realistic survival shooter should be like.'"
The lack of information about Abandoned since its unveiling has led to much speculation on how the development of the game is going. Kahraman offered an explanation as to why details on the PS5 exclusive have been thin on the ground so far.
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"The reason why people haven't seen anything of the game yet, any development of the game yet, is because simply, and to describe it in one word, is that I'm scared," he told IGN. "I'm not going to lie. The reason why I'm scared is because it's a personal work. It's something personal."
Abandoned might not be getting a release date anytime soon, but in the meantime, why not check out our pick of the best horror games to play right now.
Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I've freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and Games Radar. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.