Vanishing Game

In 2014, a "Playable Teaser" (P.T.) appeared on the PlayStation Store. It was a terrifying loop of a haunted hallway, filled with cryptic puzzles and a ghost named Lisa. Players eventually discovered it was a secret trailer for Silent Hills, directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro. Then, Konami cancelled the game, fired Kojima, and—unprecedented in history—deleted P.T. from the servers.

This book explores the cult of the "lost game." PS4s with P.T. installed are now sold for hundreds of dollars on eBay. It analyzes the genius of P.T.'s design (the looping corridor, the radio broadcasts) and the corporate feud that killed the most anticipated horror game of the decade. A story of art, ego, and digital impermanence.