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Abandoned will get its first gameplay reveal in “a few months,” according to its creator. Its first cinematic trailer – which was controversially not added to the game’s much-touted Realtime Trailers App – will follow sooner, but developer Blue Box doesn’t want to commit to specific dates after recent release issues.

After a delay, the Abandoned Realtime Trailers App went live last week, but only included a four-second teaser that had previously been shown on Twitter. Speaking to IGN, Blue Box founder Hasan Kahraman explained that a planned cinematic trailer will be released soon:

“What we had in mind was actually a 30-second teaser with more content in it, but then we had engine issues. And we had to make sure that we could solve this in time, but we didn’t have enough time. We realized that this was going to take much longer than just three days, because our initial plan was to release it before the weekend. So we had to cut down everything and then just leave it with just four or five seconds of footage.

“We’re still hoping to correct the opening teaser with the original footage. We will also put some content in there that we haven’t announced. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye out. Should people keep the real-time experience on their console? I think it’s best people keep it, but if you need storage just delete it and we will inform on Twitter once there are any new updates.”

With questions surrounding the studio as a whole, Kahraman is also aware that Abandoned needs to show off what it will actually be come release. “We have to show gameplay, because people are nervous. You have a lot of mixed feelings. You have people who are angry. You have people who are looking forward to the game. There’s people who are skeptical. They’re like, ‘No, the game doesn’t exist.’ It’s completely fine to say that because you haven’t seen anything of the game, let’s be honest.”

But Kahraman insists that a first full showing is in the works: “We’re working on the gameplay reveal. But right now, it is not ready for the public to see – if you show off the very first impression of the gameplay, that is the most important footage. We want to make sure that that is polished and good enough to showcase.” So when might that appear? “I’m not going to give a specific date because that is the first mistake [we made], making a very tight deadline. We’re hoping just in a few months, really, it won’t take too long. It’s not going to take a quarter or something like that.”

Kahraman also told IGN that the gameplay reveal will be accompanied by the release of an entirely separate, free game, The Haunting. The Haunting was a game previously worked on by Blue Box, but has been passed onto a group of developer friends, and will now be published by Kahraman’s company on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.

I asked Kahraman why the company chose not to simply delay the app again, given that he admits the release has been a ‘disaster’. “That was actually a necessity because people were getting frustrated. I knew that the moment we just put this out with this short amount of footage it was just going to make people disappointed, but we are also working on getting more content out there.”

The developer also addressed how the team didn’t know about the problems ahead of launch: “We had shader issues that we discovered at the last minute. […] We had black spots in multiple areas that we saw last-minute. We wanted to quickly do a last-minute patch, but once we solved the shader issues, then we got an engine problem. It was actually multiple issues. That’s basically where it went wrong. It was announced too soon, and there were the engine issues. That’s definitely something we learned for the future.”

Abandoned was announced for PS5 in April, and has been the subject of conspiracy theories ever since, with Kahraman having to prove he’s a real person to those waiting for the game. The game is scheduled for release in 2022.

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

“I knew that I shouldn’t take a look at what people say, but as soon as I opened Twitter and saw these reactions, I was like…” Abandoned creator and Blue Box Game Studios boss Hasan Kahraman stops for a second to consider his words. “The thing is, people are disappointed and people are frustrated and angry. And the thing is that they’re calling me or Blue Box a scammer. That is the biggest thing that, even today, is still bothering me”

There can be few games that have had as long, hard, and strange a road to release as the upcoming Abandoned. The game has been hit by conspiracy theories, its marketing plagued by technical issues, and Kahraman has made marketing decisions he now wishes he could take back. After a huge backlash to the game’s latest mishap – where a much-touted ‘Realtime Trailers’ app went live after multiple delays without any new trailer content to show – the community around the game began looking deeper into Blue Box’s history to try and work out exactly what the Dutch developer had been before all of this.

What they found (as demonstrated on Reddit by TicTacPaul) was a set of five promised games, none of which had seen a full (if any) release. It led to a response that Kahraman says has been unfair, with some characterising the Blue Box team as scammers; a group that announced games to, in some way, earn money without having to release a project. Kahraman says the reality is less exotic – Blue Box is still a small company, and began even smaller, and took some time to learn the ropes of game development, cancelling many of its projects before they began eating up the time and money it would take to bring them to life. Kahraman spent some time talking us through each of those games’ journeys.

Kahraman also tells IGN that one of the few games Blue Box had charged customers for – Fatal Frame homage The Haunting: Blood Water Curse – will be finished and released for free ahead of Abandoned’s launch. Those who bought the Early Access version will be offered an Abandoned bundle for free as a make-good.

Blue Box’s Early History

It’s clear at this point that Kahraman isn’t the kind of person that necessarily looks before he leaps. The developer admits some of Blue Box’s decisions have caused trouble for the studio and disappointed fans, something he seems to genuinely regret. Blue Box is now made up of 10 full-time staff (boosted to around 50 people on Abandoned, accounting for freelancers and outsourcing studios), but it’s been as low as two, with just Kahraman and a friend working on some early projects. The upshot is that Kahraman would often announce games before it was totally clear they were feasible to make.

The studio’s earliest project, Rewind: A Paranormal Investigation Game, was put up on Kickstarter, before that campaign was cancelled due to securing private investment. Kahraman says that investment allowed Blue Box to rework the game, retitling it Rewind: Voices of the Past. However, the project grew beyond the young studio’s capabilities and, without further investment, it was fully cancelled.

Contrary to some thoughts expressed on social media, Kahraman insists that the original investment money was paid back, to ensure Blue Box wasn’t left in debt. “It doesn’t work that way,” he explains, “because if you don’t return the funds, then you’ll have debt – and it’s not that an investor is like, ‘Hey, here you go, here’s 200K. If it works out, cool. If it doesn’t work out, keep the money.’ It doesn’t work that way.”

Other early projects included The Lost Tape (a game that used early concepts for Rewind, and was cancelled before any version was released because of the potential costs) and The Whisperer, another attempt at a Paranormal Investigation game. The Whisperer did see release on mobile – as a free-to-play game with a $0.99 purchase to turn off ads – but was quickly pulled. Kahraman says the game was removed because it had been made for PC and didn’t run well enough on phones. To Kahraman’s knowledge, all those who bought the game received refunds, but he says anyone who didn’t can email Blue Box with proof of purchase to claim one.

Similarly, Tales of Six Swords – a mobile homage to JRPGs with a far more vibrant style than Blue Box’s other projects – was released for free on Android, but subsequently pulled because the company couldn’t reach the scale of game it was aiming for with limited file sizes. Kahraman says that, in this case, pulling the game wasn’t because Blue Box won’t complete it, but because it wants to do the idea justice: “We aren’t actually done with that. We actually still like the idea and maybe in the future, we’ll definitely do something with it.”

All of these early projects share an element in common – they were announced or released very early, a pattern we’ve seen repeated on Abandoned. Overenthusiasm can easily become a mistake rather than a virtue, and has clearly caused problems for Blue Box and those interested in its games. But Kahraman repeatedly tells me that it’s inexperience that’s to blame, not the malice that’s been perceived by some circles.

“I’m still trying to figure out why people call us scammers,” says Kahraman, “because our past is like… we are a small studio, and we were even smaller, and the games that we’ve made in the past were just [made] part-time with small audiences – or actually having no audience at all.”

Indie studios at the start of their lifespan regularly begin and cancel projects with little to no notice paid by the public – it’s just that few gain the public attention (and scorn) that Blue Box has. Kahraman says his studio is no different to others: “[Some of] these games were actually put there in the hope to create an audience. And when you see that there is no audience, you just cancel it out, or if the game doesn’t work out, you just cancel it out. But it isn’t that people bought something, it isn’t that someone has spent money on it, it was just showcasing it. If there was no audience, you cancel it.”

But with the gaming world’s eyes now on their every move, Kahraman and Blue Box now want to prove their value by making good on the last of the projects announced ahead of Abandoned.

The Return of The Haunting

Blue Box’s last release before Abandoned was The Haunting, a horror game inspired by Fatal Frame and launched into Early Access last year. It too suffered due to a lack of experience around releasing a game still in development:

“It was released in Early Access in an alpha version. So it had a lot of placeholders and involved animations and character models,” Kahraman explains. “We’ve learned that if you are making a story game, a single-player game, you shouldn’t do an Early Access because people didn’t get that. People assume that, ‘Hey, there’s this game out there, let’s buy it and play it and we’ll see some production quality stuff right there’, but the truth is that it’s actually an Early Access game. And that is the reason why it didn’t go well because it wasn’t received well because people saw that it was broken, that it wasn’t finished.”

Some confusion has surrounded the future of The Haunting – instead of updating the project, it was removed from sale and Blue Box announced that development would be completed by an unknown indie studio called CreateQ. Kahraman explains to me that CreateQ is in fact a four-person developer made up of friends of Blue Box, a team comprised of full-time developers who are working on The Haunting as a side project. According to Kahraman, development is ongoing, using some of Blue Box’s original ideas, but reworked by the members of CreateQ.

“I started working on The Haunting and I think most of the components that I used are still being used, but it’s just that the concept has been changed from the ground up,” Kahraman says. “The Haunting was like our Western version of Fatal Frame, with the camera, and shooting [ghosts] and stuff. That’s basically what it is. It has some puzzles. We use some old school style exploration from horror games like Fatal Frame 1 and 2. […] The screenshots you see on Steam right now, that was a concept that we were working on, but it’s not that game. We will put [new] screenshots on the Steam page very shortly.”

The idea now is to release The Haunting as a full, finished product, for free, with Blue Box taking the financial brunt of the project and acting as its publisher. The aim is to release The Haunting on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox alongside Abandoned’s first gameplay trailer – now due in “a few months”, according to Kahraman.

For those who had already bought the Early Access version, Blue Box will soon add a form to its website and, upon receiving proof of purchase, will offer a ‘complete bundle’ of Abandoned for free in return once it sees release (it’s not clear what that complete bundle includes, other than the game). I asked Kahraman whether full refunds could be offered instead, who replied saying this is a more difficult process, presumably due to payment originally being taken through Steam, but the team would work on providing them should there be enough demand.

Abandoned in Context

Taken in the context of Blue Box’s past projects, the issues Abandoned has faced become more obviously a part of that story, rather than a cause for conspiracy thinking. The hazy announcement that led to speculation is yet another example of Blue Box seemingly talking about a game too early. The reveal of marketing assets that seem to fan those same flames is a symptom of still being a small studio – as Kahraman puts it, “I have to admit that was a big mistake, but it was completely unintentional. […] We’re small and this is the first time we actually got the world stage. We don’t have experience with marketing and PR at all. Excuse my language, but it’s really easy to f**k up.”

Even the announcement of a trailers app that won’t actually show a new trailer for some time is borne out of inexperience: “What went wrong was we announced everything too soon. Let’s be honest, even the app was just too soon. First, we were like, yes, it’s going to be [released in] June, but then again, we never thought that we would have this huge world stage. What I’m trying to say is that with this amount of eyes looking at your game, you need to polish it even more. […] That’s definitely something we learned for the future.”

Blue Box is by no means blameless, and by courting the kind of publicity it did while development on the app wasn’t finished, there’s no doubt that it managed to sow the seeds of its own social media backlash. But that Kahraman and the team are being made the centre of harmful conspiracy theories – and getting personal threats as a result – is far beyond the punishment deserving of those mistakes.

Kahraman actively wishes he could take some of his decisions back, perhaps make Abandoned a project that was announced later, described more cleanly, and managed to pull off its big marketing gambit. But this is the internet – once the mistakes are made, there’s very little chance of taking them back (proven by the fact that even the company’s earliest mistakes are now on show for the world to find). As he puts it, “If we put something up, just in that instant, we [would already have] 80 likes or 100 likes in just a second. By then, it’s too late to do [anything], but I don’t know. It was just unfortunate really.”

It’s fair to question Blue Box’s experience with releasing games on the scale of what Abandoned promises to be – but I find it hard to question the conviction of Kahraman to actually make it happen. This isn’t a story of scammers thrust into the limelight – it’s the story of a group of young developers that were handed a much louder microphone than expected, and saying the wrong things to a lot of people simultaneously. Where Abandoned goes from here, and if it makes more mistakes, is up in the air, but Kahraman is determined to prove the doubters wrong:

“Is the Realtime Experience App going to be there? Yes, definitely. Everything you see there in the menu, that is going to be released. People are waiting for content and we’re not going to abandon it. […] I 100% understand everyone. I completely agree with why they’re raging. I’m not saying that I don’t understand them. If I were a gamer and if someone else was doing exactly the same thing, I would be really hyped to see a realtime experience, and if it wasn’t coming, I would be disappointed. But they’re labeling us as scammers – that hurts. I still respect everyone really, and I’m hoping to see them still looking out for Abandoned, [despite] what they say. I do understand and I have nothing against them really. It only hurts.”

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Netflix has released seven never-before-seen character posters from its upcoming animated film, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, which is set to debut worldwide on Monday, August 23, 2021.

The posters feature Geralt’s mentor Vesemir (Theo James), the powerful sorceress Tetra Gilcrest (Lara Pulver), the fallen elf king Finlavandel (Tom Canton), and more!

IGN can exclusively reveal the characters posters in the gallery below:

Here’s how Netflix describes the movie: “Before Geralt, there was his mentor Vesemir — a swashbuckling young witcher who escaped a life of poverty to slay monsters for coin. But when a strange new monster begins terrorizing a politically fraught kingdom, Vesemir finds himself on a frightening adventure that forces him to confront the demons of his past.”

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is directed by Studio Mir’s Kwang Il Han (Avatar: The Last Airbender), written by Beau DeMayo (The Originals), and executive produced by Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.

For more Witcher, be sure to check out our full review of The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, our interview with the creators of the movie on the advantages of animation versus live-action, and everything else new to Netflix for August 2021.

David Griffin is the TV Streaming Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

Below is a spoiler-free review of the first three episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers, which debut on Hulu on Aug. 18.

Hot off the success of Big Little Lies, writer/producer David E. Kelley reteamed with its Emmy-winning star Nicole Kidman to adapt another best-selling Liane Moriarty novel, Nine Perfect Strangers. Once more they dive into the gossipy drama and dark humor to be found in the circles of wealthy (and mostly white) Californians. This time around, the central mystery is not so juicy as a bizarre death at an elaborate PTA fundraiser. Instead, it’s about an enigmatic wellness entrepreneur, who is receiving anonymous death threats during a particularly volatile group retreat. Despite some superficial similarities — including another star-stuffed cast — Nine Perfect Strangers is a very different beast than its ballyhooed predecessor, less focused and less thrilling.

Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies) directs all eight episodes of this limited series, the first three of which will be covered in this review. Set at the fictional Tranquillum House, a remote yet lavish wellness spa, Nine Perfect Strangers follows the eponymous crew through a 10-day retreat that promises radical rejuvenation results. Among them is a romance novelist recovering from a brutal break-up (Melissa McCarthy), an Instagram influencer with insecurity issues (Samara Weaving), and a frantically perky stay-at-home mom (Regina Hall). All guests are introduced through their cars, clothes, and en-route conversations, signifiers of affluence, attitude, or lack thereof. What brings each to Tranquilium House is part of the mysteries unfurled episode by episode. Why does the family of three take offense when told they “look perfect?” Why does the snarling Brit (Luke Evans) seem dubious of every treatment and requirement? What is the gruff loudmouth (Bobby Cannavale) have to hide if not his substance abuse struggles? All will be revealed… eventually.

The biggest mystery is Masha (Nicole Kidman). The mastermind behind Tranquillum House’s unusual form of group therapy, she dictates every detail, from pioneering protocols, absence from social media, special smoothies, and even personal lives of her staff (Tiffany Boone and Manny Jacinto). As she did on Big Little Lies, Kidman gives the character an enchanting mask to hide the inner demons at work within a complicated heroine. Casting a bona fide movie star in the role is an inspired choice. It’s easy to see why the strangers view Kidman’s Masha as a flawless goddess of wellness. Her easy elegance, otherworldly beauty, and welcoming yet unnerving stare (sometimes given straight down the barrel of the camera) are enthralling, drawing us all in. But as the series tiptoes along, Masha’s dark secrets tumble out, triggering a jittery — yet effective — shift in her cool façade and the dynamic of the retreat. Ambitiously, the story of Nine Perfect Strangers isn’t about one big crime, but many trespasses big and small, including illegal violations, ethical failings, and emotional betrayals.

Frustratingly though, the first three episodes move in an amble with much of the revelations being little more than Act 1 setup. Amid shared meals, group activities, and therapy sessions, the struggling squad dribbles their backstories in micro-doses. At first, it’s a tantalizing tease, but this might have gotten old fast if not for a sparkling ensemble cast.

From his first smug smile, Luke Evans crackles as a relentless pot-stirrer with a razor-sharp tongue. With a stiff physicality and thousand-yard stare, Asher Keddie exudes an unspoken agony that begs acknowledgment. A celebrated comedic performer, Regina Hall churns laughs and tension from the high-strung earnestness as a validation-starved mom. Samara Weaving, who became a kick-ass action-heroine with the trifecta of Mayhem, Guns Akimbo, and Ready or Not, shakes things up by leaning into a seemingly superficial Insta Celeb. Also clashing against type is Manny Jacinto, who broke through as the dopey faux-monk Jason Mendoza on The Good Place, and now plays sincere spiritual guide Yao. His goofy grin is replaced by a serene exterior and precisely groomed beard, but he hasn’t had much to do so far. Still, this total 180 allows Jacinto to show that he has range beyond mastering himbo humor. (No shade to himbo humor, which in it of itself is a too oft undervalued art!)

Still, the most thrilling performances are those that use the context of an established star to play on audience anticipation. For instance, Michael Shannon initially seems miscast as a middle-class father with BDE — Big Dad Energy. Cracking corny jokes and sporting polo shirts, he has banished the brow-furrowed intensity that has made him a mesmerizing madman in films like The Shape of Water, Take Shelter, and Bug. Shannon throws himself full-bodied into this jaunty dad, and his unabashed enthusiasm feels true but also fragile. Something has got to give. By the end of episode three, it will with a monologue that seems written specifically for the heady blend of existential angst and profound humanity that throbs of the heart of Shannon’s best work.

As for Melissa McCarthy, the moment she appears, you might understandably predict wacky comedy. But McCarthy — who is also an executive producer on the show — is dancing the David E. Kelley line of character-focused comedy, where heroines might be funny, but won’t be punchlines. She’ll sling withering one-liners, but also grapple with tender trauma and the terrifying possibility of growth. Happily, she’s paired once more with Bobby Cannavale, a stalwart of comedy and drama who’s previously worked with her on Spy, Thunder Force, and Superintelligence. He’s played the love interest and the villain opposite McCarthy. Here, he’s a bit of both, taking full advantage of the chaotic chemistry they share onscreen. Theirs is a thrilling Tracy-Hepburn vibe, where they are evenly matched in banter, comedic timing, and an exhilarating yearning. Here, that’s explored away from the detrimental direction of her husband, Ben Falcone, who is dragging down McCarthy’s comedy reputation. So, it’s a shame that Falcone is wedged into a small role that might have been better stunt-casted with anyone else.

The joke of a Falcone cameo has long ago lost its appeal. But more than this, his casting becomes a meta distraction to what should be a big emotional moment. This choice reflects a tonal imbalance in Nine Perfect Strangers. From The Wackness all the way to Long Shot, Levine has blended comedy with the sentimentality, but not with effectively hard-hitting drama. Under his helm, Nine Perfect Strangers lacks the zing of David E. Kelley’s signature. The cast delivers on the sharp banter and bringing pathos to characters who are at times flagrantly ridiculous. However, Levine’s soft-touch with the darker material therein means that even matters of life and death don’t achieve the teeth-grit tension that kept Big Little Lies’ first season thrilling week after week.

Nintendo announced that the free-to-play spinoff, Pokémon Unite, will be released fr Android and iOS devices on September 22 — roughly two months after the game was released on Nintendo Switch. It was also revealed that ice and ground-type Mamoswine and fairy-type Sylveon are coming to the free-to-play spinoff game in future updates.

Announced during today’s Pokémon Presents broadcast, players looking to play this game on mobile devices can pre-register on the App Store and Google Play. Nintendo notes that if the pre-registration hits a certain number of participants, those that sign up will receive some in-game bonus items, such as 1,000 Aeos tickets and a festival-style skin for Pikachu.

#PokemonUNITE is coming to mobile on September 22!

Pre-register for special rewards! pic.twitter.com/r671Bs31el

— Pokémon UNITE (@PokemonUnite) August 18, 2021

Pokémon Unite is a MOBA game where two teams of five players are battle each other to take control over multiple points spread out across a map. The game is developed by TiMi Studios, a Tencent subsidiary best-known for developing Call of Duty: Mobile.

2021 is an important year for Pokémon as the franchise celebrates its 25th anniversary. Along with the release of Pokémon Unite, several other Pokémon titles have been released this year, such as New Pokémon Snap, which launched earlier this year, In addition to Generation Four remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which will release exclusively on Nintendo Switch on November 19, the latter two titles also appearing at today’s presentation with new gameplay details, such as the ability to allow your Pokemon to follow you and character customization.

While many Pokémon titles are releasing this year, another highly anticipated entry in the Pokémon series, Legends: Arceus, will release on the Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.