Abandoned Dev Blue Box Posts Message Asking Death Threats to Stop
In June 2021, another flurry of rumors about a new Silent Hill game began making the rounds on social media, this time pulling indie development studio Blue Box and its survival title Abandoned into the fray. Sleuths began to draw all manner of connections between Blue Box, Silent Hill, and former Konami designer Hideo Kojima. Perhaps initially Blue Box thought the supposed link would be good publicity for Abandoned, because social media posts by the studio only fueled the flames.
The rumors about Abandoned and Blue Box soon morphed into a theory that the game in development was actually a Metal Gear Solid title. The game director of Abandoned, Hasan Kahraman, went on record stating that the game had nothing to do with Silent Hill or Metal Gear Solid, but it was already too late. As fans of both franchises began to realize that Abandoned really was just an indie title, complete with an underwhelming teaser trailer, excitement turned to disappointment and even anger.
Blue Box has posted a message on Twitter asking that people stop making death threats towards the Abandoned development team. For the past few months, these threats have apparently been received both online and “physically,” presumably meaning in person. According to the message, while the company understands the situation is frustrating, it does not warrant death threats. Blue Box has been keeping track of IP addresses and camera footage, which will be provided to authorities.
Needless to say, it is beyond the bounds of reason to threaten the lives of others over a video game. The anonymity of the internet has resulted in a subset of the gaming community daring to behave in ways they wouldn’t in real life, to the point that hearing about the death threats received by Blue Box isn’t even surprising.
When Twitch streamer Hasan Piker purchased a $2.7 million dollar home in August, some followers called him a hypocrite and began making threats on his life, and Piker is just one example of many content creators who deal with such hostility on a regular basis. In June, streamer xQc said that he had to move house because of excessive police raids, and just a few months later he stopped going home because people kept breaking in.
Similarly, Laura Bailey of The Last of Us 2 received death threats simply for being the voice actor behind the character Abby, whom many players didn’t like. Top Hat Studios, CD Projekt Red, and Square Enix have all received death threats from disgruntled “fans” in the past year, with the latter even canceling a series of scheduled Starwing Paradox tournaments after the game’s management team was threatened. While many of these threats are nothing more than empty air, sometimes they do end in violence. And as Blue Box unfortunately felt it necessary to point out, there are human beings behind the pixels on a screen.
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