A man has been kidnapped. Placed in a dark, empty room with a creepy spotlight, he has no idea where he is or why he was brought here. Eight cameras record and broadcast his actions live for the world to see, for three days straight.
Meanwhile, a countdown timer offers viewers the chance to vote for... something. Every four or five hours.
Doesn't sound much like a video game announcement, does it? Yet this "evil Truman Show" broadcast is exactly the method being used by Square Enix to reveal a brand new game.
The game is only being referred to by the codename Project CKP, which stands for "Can't Kill Progress."
Accordingly, the hashtag #cantkillprogress is already spreading across Twitter.
Additionally, the Twitch page links to an Instagram account where a few very brief video clips are archived. We've watched them several times and still haven't the slightest idea what we're looking at.
Square Enix's strange campaign, which kicked off earlier today via live stream on Twitch, has understandably got the Internet buzzing. Who is this man? Why is he being held captive? Who's holding him there? What are we, the viewers, voting for? And most importantly, what is Project CKP?
Decide what happens next: https://www.twitch.tv/cantkillprogress
A video posted by CantKillProgress (@cantkillprogress) on Apr 6, 2015 at 10:41am PDT
Be warned that the live broadcast can be disturbing. Having watched for half an hour or so, thus far we've seen: the man addressing his captors, pleading to know what he did and why he's here; a large, pixellated image of what looks like a hooded woman projected onto one wall; classical music piped into the room at such volume that he writhed in agony before passing out; and the man begging for something to eat, starved for food and wondering how long he'd been in this place.
At least two of those things qualify as torture, so obviously we're meant to believe this man is the subject of some kind of twisted experiment.
While parts of the broadcast could indeed be live, large portions of it are being shown on a recorded loop, as they happen repeatedly. The man spends most of his time laying on the ground unconscious or wandering around the room, trying to find any kind of clue about his circumstances. Every few minutes, a bit.ly URL pops up on the screen that leads to another Instagram archive of one of those short videos.
The prevailing theory on Twitter and Twitch both, based on comments we've seen, is that this could be the long-awaited announcement of a new Deus Ex game. The idea of "killing progress" fits with the future world of Deus Ex's augmented humans. But it's just as possible that Square Enix could be announcing a brand new IP.
We'll keep an eye on the Project CKP Twitch page and let you know if and when anything momentous occurs.
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