The Mystery of Blue Box Game Studios

We humans love a good mystery, don’t we? From simple riddles to complex conspiracies – we eat that shit up. Even moreso when it links to our interests, which in our case here, is games. 

You may have heard of Blue Box Game Studios after recent events, but if you haven’t, they’re a small, seemingly indie developer based in Leiden, Netherlands, developing a game tentatively titled “Abandoned”. Abandoned was announced in April of this year, with a short teaser trailer of a forest, and a woman’s voice telling of a strange blood cult that is hunting you down. Instantly, the internet was ignited with theories and rumours. Could this be a new Kojima game? After all, Silent Hills was teased with the release of PT – first an eerie, almost hallucinatory trailer featuring a talking paper bag sodden with blood, then a demo – or Playable Teaser – that mysteriously went up on the PlayStation Store with very little info and a looping gameplay that required some severe detective work to get to the bottom of.

It didn’t take fans long to figure PT out. Kojima himself stated that he’d wanted it to be harder, and had done his best to drop the framerate to 30fps, and use some pre-made assets here and there to give the illusion that ‘7780s Studio’, the apparent developer of PT, was a genuine indie studio. But it didn’t quite work out that way. The quality was much higher than anyone expected from a brand new development team, and the creepy vibes and other assorted clues gave way to Kojima’s involvement relatively quickly. After all, this wasn’t the first time he’d pulled a stunt like this.

Prior to the reveal of Metal Gear Solid V, a teaser for a new game was shown, simply titled “The Phantom Pain” – the eventual tag-line for MGSV – coming from Moby Dick Studios, helmed by Swedish developer Joakim Mogren. Joakim made an appearance on GTTV, interviewed by Geoff Keighley – an important name for the current situation with BBGS – but when seen, had his entire head wrapped in a large number of bandages due to suffering from “an accident”, but advised it should hopefully be fine in time for GDC later that month. The screenshots of this mysterious game, as well as concept art provided during the interview, featured the Fox Engine logo – instantaneously confirming suspicions towards Joakim, whom everyone was already doubtful about, with Joakim conveniently being an anagram for Kojima being a big point of contention.

Fans went wild with all of the tidbits of info, and when Geoff played coy when it came to the big reveal at GDC, with Joakim removing his bandages to reveal Kojima underneath, it was clear Mr. Keighley was in on it from the start.

So this is where Geoff comes into play with the current situation over at Blue Box Game Studios – he has been following them on Twitter since the beginning, and re-ignited the rumours when he posted about a DM he’d received from them asking for help to show their game during this years’ Summer Games Fest. Why was Geoff following this unknown indie developer? And why did he screenshot their seemingly simple message, only to show it in a comment on ResetEra months later? Keighley’s friendship with Kojima across previous stunts was immediately called into play, making this whole interaction seem more than a bit suspicious. 

So out came the tinfoil hats, and the internet got to work. Some of the main highlights here, that point towards Blue Box Game Studios being more than they’re letting on are:

- Blue Box is helmed by Hasan Kahraman, whose initials just so happen to match Hideo Kojima’s.

- Using Google Translate (admittedly not a perfect resource) to translate Hasan to Japanese and then into English gives you “I’m waiting”. Fits with previous MGS quote “kept you waiting, huh?” which Geoff Keighley referenced when asked about photos that Hasan was due to send him.

- Using Google Translate again, on Kahraman – to translate from Turkish > Japanese > English gives you “Hideo”.

- Combine these to get “I’m waiting, Hideo” which seems awfully convenient, and despite the frequent inaccuracies in the translations, definitely seems more than a little coincidental. Could this purely be Kojima taunting us with imperfect translations, to cause a divide between the believers and the people who are adamant at Google’s inconsistencies?

- The number 27 being linked repeatedly. The 27th was the date in April 2015 that Silent Hills was cancelled, after the split between Konami and Hideo Kojima, but this also has ties to another theory, in that the game is actually related to Siren (after an unknown game on PSN was seen on Hasan’s PSN account, with an image of Siren Head, as well as the voiceover from the Abandoned trailer describing events that also fit within the Siren franchise).

- Trevor Henderson, creator of Siren Head and other horror creatures, has discussed working on secret projects recently. Could it be a Siren Head game? Or Silent Hill? He has denied his involvement, but we all know that denial isn’t always 100% (see Moby Dick Studios’ previous denials of being Kojima).

- Geoff Keighley’s involvement, however minor, has raised eyebrows due to his previous links to Kojima’s plans.

- A cancelled Kickstarter for a now ‘privately funded’ title from BBGS was launched, lasting only two weeks. This game, known as REWIND, plays heavily on the tropes and story aspects from Silent Hill, and the first chapter of this game was detailed as being called ‘Abandoned’. Who is funding them privately? Again, convenient timing with the whole Konami/Kojima issue, but this would mean this plan has been in the works for years. Did they even get funding, or was this just a cover story? And if it is a cover, why cancel the Kickstarter two weeks in, and not wait to see how it panned out?

- BBGS’ previous titles consist of a number of asset flip titles, with none of them ever selling well.

- ‘Abandoned’ got a feature on the PlayStation Blog, and the trailer dropped on the official PlayStation YouTube channel. Why is this trailer-but-not-actually-a-trailer being focused on so heavily, for an indie studio with no previous reputation?

- Studio lead, Hasan (known on Steam as Sneaky Warriorr) has been unclear through chats with fans, as to what he is working on, details regarding his team, and if his company is BBGS or another company, CreateQ, which he has also been linked to (and is also as strangely non-existent on Google).

- Another game being worked on, either by BBGS or CreateQ is The Haunting: Blood Water Curse, which also strangely links to the Siren theory.

- BBGS is apparently located in Leiden, Netherlands. Kojima has links to the Netherlands, with Guerrilla Games providing him the Decima Engine used for Death Stranding, as well as photos of him specifically in Leiden.

- Further to this, Kojima Productions mascot, Ludens is based on Homo Ludens, which was first coined by a Dutch historian in, you guessed it, Leiden.

- The timing of BBGS’ social media posts, as well as interactions with both Geoff Keighley, and others, is at a strange local time for someone considered to be in Leiden: 3am. Arguably, as an indie developer – this may be normal for their circumstances, but lines up coincidentally with around 10am in Tokyo.

- Kojima’s guest appearance at Summer Games Fest this year was a little unusual. His chat with Geoff Keighley seemed awkward, and Geoff highlights that it is taking place at well past 3am ‘his time’ referring to Kojima in Japan, which again is oddly linked to the timing of the posts from BBGS in their local time. Kojima goes on to explain that he always likes to think about ‘what could happen in 5, 10, 20 years’ time, ‘predicting the future’ and ‘adding the entertainment essence’, which to me gives credence to the idea that this could be something that’s been in the making for 6+ years at this point. Another thing he mentions with his ideas is that he likes to give people things to learn, and states that things are catching up so quickly that it’s ‘not just fiction anymore’ - does he mean like an ARG? Where we’re actively doing this learning and research into his plans in real life? ‘It won’t be like the past, it won’t be one step at a time.’ There’s also multiple mentions of 9/11, as well as aliens, which seem slightly off-track, but when thinking deeper into it - could he be referring to the conspiracy theories?

- His reveal, of Death Stranding: Director’s Cut had reference to a box, as well as a stealth area – which at first gave vibes of MGS, with Sam jumping into the box (in a hilariously awkward fashion), before stepping back out and putting the box away (not to mention leaving the tossed out oranges on the floor?). Have we to think outside the box? Was the box referencing Blue Box? Were the oranges in reference to the Netherlands? SO MANY QUESTIONS!

Now, Blue Box Game Studios did try to distance themselves from the Kojima rumours back in April when the trailer first dropped. And again recently when the whole internet blew up with the rumours, they made a post to state this again. But, and it’s a big but, they have been the tinder to the flame on multiple occasions throughout this whole debacle. They tweeted about the title reveal, asking people to guess the name of the game, with the hint “starts with S and ends with L”, before backtracking – claiming that they did not realise fans would confuse this with Silent Hill. I mean, come on! Hasan also responded to a message he received via PSN asking about the game, by stating that he couldn’t confirm if Abandoned is related to Silent Hill or not.

So there seem to be two trains of thought at present, and that is that either he is in waaay over his head, or he’s Kojima.

Konami haven’t helped things either, teasing new items coming to the Konami Shop from the Silent Hill franchise, for the first time in a while. There were lots of speculation over this, as they’d started a hashtag on Twitter for this, which again, coincidentally lined up with a bunch of Dutch tweets, furthering the connection to the Netherlands. This all turned out to be for some Silent Hill skateboards (as well as other merch to be announced), that will go up for preorder on the 23rd June, at 4pm. 23 + 4 = 27, and the hype train just keeps going. 

At the point we’re at now, it’s hard to look at all of the many, many coincidences, seeing all of the connections, and not let yourself think, even for a moment, that all of this could be real. As fans of Silent Hill, Hideo Kojima, and conspiracies in general, I’ve fallen deep into the rabbit hole of information, second guessing every instance of 27 I see anywhere. I seem to be a metronome, switching from Team Real to Fake at a moments’ notice, heavily invested but also highly sceptical of any info that comes out. 

Blue Box announced the date of their upcoming App release, which will feature real-time trailers within (another weirdly specific feature that no AAA companies have done, never mind unknown indies) for the 20th June – however this was pushed back to the 22nd, before being pushed back again to the 25th. I am totally on the hype train for this, and over-reading and over-thinking everything as my first thought with the delay was ‘oh, pushed back two days’ then ‘oh no wait, it’s been pushed back five days’ to doing mental gymnastics of 2+5 = 7, but the original date was the 20th, so 20 + 7 = 27. This has turned into almost full-blown insanity at this point, and whether it’s all part of Hasan’s - or Hideo’s - plan, with an elaborate, multi-year ruse leading to a new game reveal, or a Silent Hill one, I don’t know. And while it’s definitely been a lot of fun to theorise and get involved – I truly hope that no matter the outcome, that the fans handle it well.

It could simply be part of a larger ARG that has been in the works since PT itself, but after the fallout, was put on the back burner, and only just revived recently (giving context to just how this has been going on for so many years), or it could just as simply be us; a bunch of die-hard fans, absolutely running with the idea that Kojima is about to drop a new game, when in reality we are potentially hurting an indie developer.

Any one of Hasan, Hideo, Sony or Konami could release a further statement to clarify, but as of now, with only BBGS (of which Hasan could possibly be the one running their Social Media) have denied any ties to Silent Hill, but with no verifiable identity, this hasn’t been enough to stop the rumours. And with the rest of them keeping quiet, the silence is deafening.

- V x

I have reached out to Blue Box Game Studios to see if they wish to provide any further clarity on the situation, and to see how they feel about everything that has gone on since their reveal, so I will update if/when I get a response.

If you’d like to keep reading more on peoples’ theories and thoughts, check the ResetEra thread, as well as the dedicated subreddit (neither of which are mine!).