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S______L for PS5 to be revealed soon (The dedicated blueballs/Kojima 'conspiracy' thread)

Is this new Silent Hill real or fake?

  • Real

    Votes: 330 44.6%
  • Fake

    Votes: 410 55.4%

  • Total voters
    740
  • Poll closed .

bitbydeath

Member
Sony doesn't need to jump in for anything. They have barely anything to do with this guy, other than hosting one of his games on PS5 and having published a random post on their blog and a 30 seconds nothing-video on their YouTube channel. He's a third party developer, unless he does something illegal, breaks their internal terms and conditions (which I don't know) or behaves in a way that is highly damaging for the PlayStation brand, what do they even care. They possibly even already told him to take it down a notch, which is why he posted this:




You are assuming people at PlayStation are super-involved with him, but they really aren't. Also, Sony has been very very silent in the past couple of years and made almost a point to never respond directly to rumors, no matter how insistent or serious they are, not even ones related to their own hardware or IPs. Imagine how much of a shit they give if a random indie dude with a PS5 devkit enters the spotlight for a week or two over nothing.

As for Konami, they are a dying company which has become legendarily bad at brand managing and communication. They keep pushing Silent Hill-related merch and minor collaborations left and right, but then they do nothing else with the IP. Every time people are SURE it must mean they are about to announce a new game, Konami plays around with it for a couple of weeks, and then nothing happens. And even if they knew what they are doing, it's all free advertisement for them and their IP. They did nothing. They didn't need to do anything. But all of a sudden Silent Hill is once again talked about by anyone.


Quite some years back, a random guy led the entire Fallout community by the nose for several days pretending to be somebody from Bethesda and posting cryptic messages hinting at the announcement of Fallout 4 (of course I'm talking long before the real Fallout 4 was actually developed by Bethesda). This strange "marketing campaign" was widely reported by gaming media, he posted a few encrypted messages that were deciphered over time by the community, until at some point either he got bored of it or ran out of ideas on what to say next, and just made a post to state "Sorry, I'm not actually Bethesda, I was pulling your leg. Fuck you if you have a problem with that, and goodbye".

Bethesda said absolutely nothing during or after the event, because why would they? It was all free advertising, they would take zero blame from it all, and it was a free chance to gauge the interest for people over a new Fallout game.



I don't think it started from him, he was just super-misterious and vague about his game (probably because it's shovelware shite and he knows it), other people made the Kojima connection first. But then he started dancing around it, changed his YouTube banner to the misty hills, published the "Abandoned = S_____L" tweet, and at that point he KNEW what he was doing.

Then either he himself panicked or Sony/Konami gave him a call, and he very quickly put out a statement to distance himself from Konami or thier IPs. But at that point it was too late already, people entered full Cognitive Bias Mode, completely rejected any notion pointing at him just being a random unknown developer, and dug to find literally anything, no matter how absurd or cherry-picked, to cling onto the notion of him being connected somehow to Kojima and Silent Hill.

Some people won't listen to reason no matter what because they are not trying to figure out what is real, they actively want to convince themselves of what they wish to be real. If somebody completely spontaneously made the mental leap "Shit nothing-game from unknown studio is advertised once by PlayStation = iT mUsT bE kOJimA!!!!" and enough people went with it with zero additional initial evidence, you get an idea of the predisposition of all of these poeple.

They’ve been known to jump in for less, it would be expected for them to set expectations.

I feel like you’re not up on everything here and that’s fine, not long to go now anyway!
 
Fe6dB7C.png


This is the Dutch journalist who interviewed him.
 

Vae_Victis

Banned
It'd be pretty funny if it turned out to be something after this wall of worthless text. Quoting for posterity.

Feel free to quote. I stand by my word.

I don't play this game because I want or not want it to be real, or for people to be excited or whatever. I just say what my eyes see and my common sense consequently suggests.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Fe6dB7C.png


This is the Dutch journalist who interviewed him.

Well, if true then the man's a bloody fool.

Anyone who knows anything about video games fandom knows that the backlash can unfortunately be very bad and very harsh. If he is just a small indie dev who's decided to have fun perpetrating a myth created by fans, it's going to bite him on the arse quite hard. Equally, anyone also getting in on the act to push their own agendas will equally get a lot of shit thrown their way.

This is not a good way to market a new video game.
 

dotnotbot

Member
Very nice wrap up from era. If Kojima wanted to buiid up hype using some small indie developer game, he wouldn't choose dishonest asset flipper. His games were available for purchase and have legitimate reviews (usually negative).

oN4ZRHr.png

1S9pWKl.png
 
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I've seen someone posting about a BBG previous 'supposed' game which has stopped development or canceled in a webarchive


I can not see every image there maybe they are deleted but this was also another game made by BBG that didn't materialise I think.

1_bg.jpg

2_bg.jpg


So where the hell is this game really?
 
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hyperbertha

Member
Well, if true then the man's a bloody fool.

Anyone who knows anything about video games fandom knows that the backlash can unfortunately be very bad and very harsh. If he is just a small indie dev who's decided to have fun perpetrating a myth created by fans, it's going to bite him on the arse quite hard. Equally, anyone also getting in on the act to push their own agendas will equally get a lot of shit thrown their way.

This is not a good way to market a new video game.
Provided he's an indie, he'll get tons of twitter threats, but...that's about it. His game will most likely do much better than if nothing had happened. Bad publicity does create sales. And since its been on the minds of so many people for so many days, its likely going to be a financial success for him.

His reputation will be fucked up, but as long as his indie turns out to be decent, he'll still have a future, since he has that plausible deniability from the tweet he made saying this had nothing to do with silent hill. He can always go back to that. Nobody can really make a case against him because of that tweet. Don't underestimate it.

That said, I can't see how this is an indie title at all. Its got 50+ devs working on it. He said it himslef! There is something fishy here. I started at 50 percent, then went to 100, then went back to 75 percent sure. Time will tell.
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
thehauntingLOG.jpg


I mean even their shitty game title design is infringing on Metal Gear Solid V(white) Phantom Pain (red) lol these guys (if they are more than 1 guy that is) are Kojima wannabes flipping designs and assets for their shitty early access dump fires. On Steam this game got highly negative reviews and then pulled down from the store and delisted... if that's not telling then I guess you are just in for the fun ride and not actually crazy.
Pecking away at bibs and bobs here or there is missing the bigger picture. There are a confluence of coincidences that point in a certain direction. Yeah, you can tear away at the edges, but that's not really what has driven this thread. There have been numerous dead ends or wrong turns along the way, but there's some really strange shit that can't be explained away, and aligns well with Kojima.
  • BBGS started it with S_L tweet
  • Hasan's initials match Hideo's
  • Kahraman translates into Hideo in the biggest translation app in the world
  • Hasan's association with BBGS predates any of this mania
  • Abandoned gets a teaser video on YT for what apparently isn't even the official game (you'd expect they needed to demo the product to Sony at some point)
  • Abandoned gets a blog post
  • BBGS gets a standalone hype app that isn't even supposed to feature game content upon launch
  • Konami leaking merch images that hint at a yet unreleased product
  • Kojima has done this viral marketing before
This is a supposed indie studio getting high-profile treatment. Yeah, if you think they've scammed Sony (consummate professionals when it comes to handling indie devs), then I have a bridge to sell you. The debunking in this thread has amounted to "Sony got fooled by a nobody, despite over 2 decades of experience working with a myriad of devs." So we'd have to assume that there have been no scammers in that period of time, and it's this one crafty Hasan Kahraman who slipped through the cracks, despite having absolutely no credible online paper trail to get through even the lightest scrutineering. That and it just happens to coincidentally tie into a Silent Hills project theory that has been running for years now.

I've said it before. Thinking it's fake, because there just isn't anything tangible, is completely understandable. I find no fault with that kind of thinking. OTOH, there are some leaps in logic that must be undertaken to conclude that this is all the work of a nobody indie dev who lied his way through multiple checkpoint, to arrive at a point that other indies with established records haven't even been able to reach. I'm not buying that. Given that Kojima has done this very thing before, I find it hard to believe a theory that relies on gross incompetence from one party (Sony) that has shown competence in this arena for decades, and extreme luck from the other party (Hasan) who we have a hard time finding any concrete information on.

An indie dev that's trying to make a legit game, and got caught up in a whirlwind of hype, would at least have some online presence that can be verified. A scammer shouldn't even have made it through the door, much less as far as this. A Kojima ploy easily gets this far, as it's coordinated with Sony, so the inconsistencies mean nothing, because the end product is legit, and this is just a marketing tool (which is proving to be successful).
 

dotnotbot

Member
That said, I can't see how this is an indie title at all. Its got 50+ devs working on it. He said it himslef! There is something fishy here. I started at 50 percent, then went to 100, then went back to 75 percent sure. Time will tell.

Don't put faith in that number or anything he says really. Just like he lists all his partners being Sony and Nvidia and Epic, this number may be made up.
 
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FunkMiller

Gold Member
Provided he's an indie, he'll get tons of twitter threats, but...that's about it. His game will most likely do much better than if nothing had happened. Bad publicity does create sales. And since its been on the minds of so many people for so many days, its likely going to be a financial success for him.

If he is an indie, who has managed to convince Sony to give his game such a high profile, and the game is just another small scale first person horror game, then why haven't Sony come out and said as much? Why are they being so silent?

I've tried to look at this from a comms point of view for Sony, and if Hasan is just a grifter who's deliberately riding on the narrative to sell his game, then if I worked in comms at Sony I'd be strongly advising my superiors to put out a statement to put the fire out.

Because Sony do not want to be associated with someone that the fan community thinks is a grifter and a liar - which is what will happen if this turns out to be nothing. Let's not forget how big this has blown up.

Bad publicity may create sales, but it will also be a reputational hit to Sony if it isn't cleared up. They love to court indie devs, and show how great a relationship they have with them. What are we all supposed to think if they continue to work with someone like Hasan Kharaman? And what are other indie devs supposed to think?
 
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DonJorginho

Banned
I've seen someone posting about a BBG previous 'supposed' game which has stopped development or canceled in a webarchive


I can not see every image there maybe they are deleted but this was also another game made by BBG that didn't materialise I think.

1_bg.jpg

2_bg.jpg


So where the hell is this game really?
THE GAME IS CALLED UNSEEN FACES YOU SAY?

WE HAVE NOT SEEN HASAN'S FACE.

WE HAVE NOT SEEN ANYONE BEHIND THIS GAME.

WE HAVE NOT SEEN ANYONE FROM KOJIPRO DENY RUMOURS.

Tim And Eric Omg GIF
 
Don't put faith in that number or anything he says really. Just like he lists all his partners being Sony and Nvidia and Epic, this number may be made up.
Exactly. Why is anyone putting faith in anything claimed here? Likely those things listed as partners were inflating the relationships to fleece investors.
None of these coincidences are even surprising. People have been making PT and silent hill clones since PT dropped. The Medium is a Silent Hill wannabe, and just came out recently, and had the Silent Hill composer working on it.
These guys are making a horror PT like and that’s it.
And there has been a real-time trailer app - for Killzone? Killzone 2 back in the day. Can’t remember which.
Team fake. I want koji hills badly. But still team fake.
 
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dotnotbot

Member
Exactly. Why is anyone putting faith in anything claimed here? Likely those things listed as partners were inflating the relationships to fleece investors.
None of these coincidences are even surprising. People have been making PT and silent hill clones since PT dropped. The Medium is a Silent Hill wannabe, and just came out recently, and had the Silent Hill composer working on it.
These guys are making a horror PT like and that’s it.
And there has been a real-time trailer app - for Killzone? Killzone 2 back in the day. Can’t remember which.
Team fake. I want koji hills badly. But still team fake.

I think he makes all of this just to continue sipping on some dotations for game developers, either from government or somewhere else.
 
I think he makes all of this just to continue sipping on some dotations for game developers, either from government or somewhere else.
What I really don’t get is why people were interested in the original trailer anyway. It’s a procedural forest that looks sort of fine, and then a really dumb, poor voice over about stuff, and then really poor, bad frame rate first person guy walking. There’s zero artistry here, and there’s a sense of hiding you’ve basically got nothing finished at all. I don’t get the sense these people really understand horror or have an imagination. It looks like half finished crap stealing from better places.
 
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FunkMiller

Gold Member
What I really don’t get is why people were interested in the original trailer anyway. It’s a procedural forest that looks sort of fine, and then a really dumb, poor voice over about stuff, and then really poor, bad frame rate first person guy walking. There’s zero artistry here, and there’s a sense of hiding you’ve basically got nothing finished at all. I don’t get the sense these people really understand horror or have an imagination. It looks like half finished crap stealing from better places.

Well, there’s the whole thing in a nutshell. The only reason the Abandoned trailer was even noticed was because Sony pushed it. Everything has stemmed from that.
 

Vick

Gold Member
People still in denial i see..

After insiders going from skeptical to "Are you ready for Paradise? #TeamReal"..
After Konami is teasing a sequel and pinning comments saying "Abandoned is Silent Hill" (yeah, later removed for obvious reasons, yet some people wants us to believe they are pinning random comments without even reading them) instead of shutting them down immediately like they always did.
After this indie developer Hasan is completely ignored by Indie Chief Shu, have no presence on social media, is part of a team with no real members, have the audacity of ghosting Geoff, is completely clueless yet soon to release a first time ever App (literally "Playable Teaser" in a previous article) which requires instructions..



This has become extremely reminiscent of real life discussions about certain topics with certain individuals.
 
Well, there’s the whole thing in a nutshell. The only reason the Abandoned trailer was even noticed was because Sony pushed it. Everything has stemmed from that.
They post loads of blog posts for indie games. I still don’t understand how this is unique or important.
Here’s a pile of shit psychological horror indie they promoted recently.
 
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kyliethicc

Member
People keep saying this but was it actually MGS music or just a riff on it?

It could've just been a similar tune in order to invoke the classic MGS soundtrack.
there was actual metal gear music in the trailer? Not just similar sounding?


If its not the exact music, its so close that Konami could easily sue if they wanted to.

Which makes me assume Sony had Konami's approval before that went out.
 
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dotnotbot

Member
After insiders going from skeptical to "Are you ready for Paradise? #TeamReal"..

That's because real Sillent Hill (and maybe even MGS) projects are in the making. But Abandoned feels to me like an elaborate scam.
 
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FunkMiller

Gold Member
They post loads of blog posts for indie games. I still don’t understand how this is unique or important.

Please do feel free to provide examples of indie devs with no previous games we can access, with a team of people we cannot find anything about, in a company we can find very little about, with almost no online presence… who are given time on the official Playstation channel and blog (featuring footage that isn’t even from the game), and allowed to create a real time trailer app for their new game.

It really doesn’t add up. Sony love to promote and encourage indie devs, but like this? Ones with such a shaky, shady platform?
 
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killatopak

Gold Member
They post loads of blog posts for indie games. I still don’t understand how this is unique or important.
It wasn’t until it was.

The first few pages are jokingly optimistic and more are actually skeptical including myself. So many coincidences and strange messaging later and the believability increased more and more. It had its ups and downs and has led to this point.
 

SpokkX

Member
Sony skipped E3.
Konami skipped E3.
3 months ago, Kojima Productions said their next game will be announced soon.
Kojima just used Metal Gear music in his new trailer for Death Stranding PS5.
Konami owns that music. Sony owns that game.

Bluepoint hasn't announced their next game.
There is an easter egg sound effect from Metal Gear in Bluepoint's last game.
Again, Konami own MGS, but Sony owns Demon's Souls.
There are rumors Bluepoint are remaking Metal Gear Solid.

There have been rumors of Silent Hill coming back.
There was a rumor of Sony licensing Konami's IPs.
A new Castlevania collection coming soon just popped up.
Konami's merch twitter is teasing Silent Hill suddenly.

Now we have this random fucking "indie" PS5 exclusive game being teased, and its 1st person horror.
Konami are quiet on this game.
Kojima is quiet on this game.
Sony are quiet on this game. Even Shuhei, head of indies, silent.

Something is going on.

there was actual metal gear music in the trailer? Not just similar sounding?
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Please do feel free to provide examples of indie devs with no previous games we can access, with a team of people we cannot find anything about, in a company we can find very little about, with almost no online presence… who are given time on the official Playstation channel and blog (featuring footage that isn’t even from the game), and allowed to create a real time trailer app for their new game.

It really doesn’t add up. Sony love to promote and encourage indie devs, but like this? Ones with such a shaky, shady platform?
And to add to this, their employees on LinkedIn and their websites were using stock photos of random people.
 

VN1X

Banned
If its not the exact music, its so close that Konami could easily sue if they wanted to.

Which makes me assume Sony had Konami's approval before that went out.
Not trying to be contrarian but I don't think that's how it works.

Stuff like this happens in popular media all the time. Plenty of filmmakers or game devs invoke or otherwise are inspired by those that came before them. Some times in obtuse ways while other times very on the nose. I doubt Konami has grounds to actually sue if that's the case, nor could I imagine their legal team would think it's worth the hassle (I don't know the ins and outs of that though lol).
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Pretty sure it was original, but maybe that's even wilder because that means someone went out of their way to create an immaculate homage to the MGS[2] soundtrack for a "throwaway" trailer.
And interestingly, that "trailer" is not even related to Death Stranding, at all. It does not relate to it narratively whatsoever, and it does not give any indication of whatever new story content that Kojima is introducing.

It also does not highlight any updates or changes that are exclusive to the PS5 version. I played Death Stranding for 120 hours, and that trailer has no connection with Death Stranding. But it is full of Metal Gear references.
 

kyliethicc

Member
Not trying to be contrarian but I don't think that's how it works.

Stuff like this happens in popular media all the time. Plenty of filmmakers or game devs invoke or otherwise are inspired by those that came before them. Some times in obtuse ways while other times very on the nose. I doubt Konami has grounds to actually sue if that's the case, nor could I imagine their legal team would think it's worth the hassle (I don't know the ins and outs of that though lol).
Music is easily protected by copyright.

Go make an official product advertisement using copyrighted music without permission and see how it goes.

And interestingly, that "trailer" is not even related to Death Stranding, at all. It does not relate to it narratively whatsoever, and it does not give any indication of whatever new story content that Kojima is introducing.

It also does not highlight any updates or changes that are exclusive to the PS5 version. I played Death Stranding for 120 hours, and that trailer has no connection with Death Stranding. But it is full of Metal Gear references.
Well, it does show that the PS5 version will have 60 FPS.
 
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FunkMiller

Gold Member
And to add to this, their employees on LinkedIn and their websites were using stock photos of random people.

Shit, I didn’t even know that bit!

So Sony are happy to stay quiet and do nothing about a developer with no previous games, faking employee profiles, no social media presence, who is stoking an online narrative that will only make them look bad if it turns out to be false?
 
And to add to this, their employees on LinkedIn and their websites were using stock photos of random people.
Those stock photos come packaged with the free blog theme they used, which points more to a cheapo grifter than a grand conspiracy. If you pull up the dev tools and uncomment the blog sections they’re not using, you see the same photos for unrelated Lorem ipsum kind of stuff, for like photo gallery etc. You can find the blog theme online to use yourself and see the pics in there.
 

dotnotbot

Member
M5wLqH9.png


I like how people feel this is a puzzle or a riddle when Hasan is simply struggling with his English :messenger_grinning_sweat:

And of course, another delay.
 
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SCB3

Member
Not trying to be contrarian but I don't think that's how it works.

Stuff like this happens in popular media all the time. Plenty of filmmakers or game devs invoke or otherwise are inspired by those that came before them. Some times in obtuse ways while other times very on the nose. I doubt Konami has grounds to actually sue if that's the case, nor could I imagine their legal team would think it's worth the hassle (I don't know the ins and outs of that though lol).

This very thing happened to Metal Gear Solid, theres a reason they moved on from the iconic theme from MGS 1, 2 and 3, they changed it on fear of being sued
 

GHG

Member
I'm calling it now. This app will be the next part of this Arg thrill ride.

Yep of it's a mobile app then it would completely tie in with Jim Ryan's "sooner than you think" statement regarding mobile involvement and also Alanah Pierce's latest video on this subject.

Edit: I see it's just been delayed again... It's starting to feel like the guy is stringing everyone along at this point and just buying himself time.
 
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