(Konami)

Kojima fans are once again making a mountain out of a silent hill, as a flurry of clues has fueled rumors that the infamously nixed Kojima-led Silent Hill game could be back on.

At the center of the rumor mill is a PS5 game announced in April called Abandoned, a cinematic survival horror game made by Blue Box studios.

The trailer's voiceover quickly drew comparisons to Silent Hill; the narrator talks of waking up in a strange town and is pursued by a religious cult, two themes that are central to the Silent Hill franchise. Some speculated that the game may actually be Kojima's Silent Hill in disguise. Kojima, ever the unique auteur, is no stranger to teasing games with an ARG-like set of clues. Kojima teased Metal Gear Solid 5 as a game called "The Phantom Pain," developed by "Moby Dick Studios" and directed by "Joakim Mogren" ("Joakim" is an anagram for "Kojima.")

The speculation was only heightened when Blue Box tweeted, "Guess the name: Abandoned = (First letter S, Last letter L). Reveal closing in…" However, after fans reasonably took this as the sign that Abandoned was actually Silent Hill in disguise, Blue Box said they were simply a small team of developers passionate about their game and had no relation to Konami, Kojima or Silent Hill. Of course, for conspiracy theorists, that's exactly what a lying Kojima would say.

Clues have continued to spur rumors on /r/TheBlueBoxConspiracy, a subreddit devoted to investigating whether Blue Box is a fake studio acting as cover for Kojima's Silent Hill project. Among the more compelling clues is that Abandoned's director is named Hasan Kahraman, giving him the same initials as Hideo Kojima. Furthermore, if you use Google Translate to translate "Hideo" into Turkish, you get "Kahraman."

(Google Translate)

Further speculative pieces of evidence include a Kojima tweet that happened to have the words "Silent" and "Hills" in it, a picture he posted of himself holding a blue box, the fact that Blue Box's YouTube channel has no videos, only a banner showing hills and that Blue Box's Twitter handle, @BBGameStudios, may be a reference to Death Stranding's "BBs."

Coincidentally (or not, who knows?), the Official Konami Merch Twitter account sparked its own branch of rumors when it tweeted "Coming Soon…" along with the Silent Hill logo. This turned out to be a teaser for Silent Hill skateboards.

So, here's where everything stands right now: Blue Box denies they are Kojima in disguise, but half of the people following their story don't buy it. IGN's Jordon Oloman has had contact with Kahraman over email and can confirm that Blue Box is a real studio in the Netherlands at least, but is currently "trying to set up a call" with Kahraman to get to the bottom of the mystery. Abandoned tweeted it will show a gameplay trailer tomorrow on the PS5 via an app, but the tweet has been deleted. And we have Silent Hill skateboards. If ever there were a time to shake your fist at the sky and shout "KOJIMAAAA!", it's now.


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Comments 3 total

Pokejoseph64

PT has not been mentioned at all here wth?

0

winton overwat

Broke: "Guys, guys, Kojima and Konami never really split and Silent Hills wasn't really cancelled, it was all just a classic Kojima ruse. Silent Hills will be released any day now!"

WOKE: "Kojima left Konami because Konami is barely a game company and is now only a money laundering front for the Yakuza"

4

Old Boy

people are still thinking that Kojima made Silent Hill series just drive me up the wall not knowing that it was a team that did it.

I miss Team Silent.

3
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