Abandoned developer Blue Box Game Studios today put to rest rumors that Hideo Kojima is behind the game.

On April 7, PlayStation posted a blog entry about a new PS5 exclusive, Abandoned. Developed by a small studio from the Netherlands, Abandoned is a cinematic survival horror shooter set in an open-world environment. The reveal was quite ambiguous with the promise of a gameplay reveal later this year, and that was enough to get people wondering if a famous game director could be trying to hoodwink players.

Rumors began popping up that Abandoned was a secret game from Hideo Kojima. After all, the game director pulled the same stunt in 2012 when Kojima pretended to be 'Moby Dick Studios' CEO Joakim Mogren and pass off 'The Phantom Pain' as a new IP. However, Abandoned isn't a Kojima Productions game. It's an ambitious title from an indie developer looking to make a name for themselves.

"We received several emails regarding the Hideo Kojima rumor. We have no association with Hideo Kojima nor do we claim to have any association nor was it our intention to claim such a statement. We are a small group of developers working on a passionate title we wanted to work on for a long time. We have been assisting other studios in the past with their projects and we wanted to work on our very first big project. While it is true that we've been working on small projects in the past, we certainly didn't use that for marketing purposes. We hope this has clarified this matter and hope to see you all in our very first gameplay reveal of Abandoned."

As for what Hideo Kojima is up to, there's a chance his next project might not even appear on PlayStation. According to well-known industry insider Jeff Grubb, Kojima is in talks with Microsoft to publish his next game. The talks are nowhere near final, but that should be enough to put this Abandoned rumor to rest.

Abandoned is set for a Q4 2021 launch on PS5.