If you spent any time on the internet this weekend, you might’ve seen some news about Bloodborne Remastered coming to PC and PS5 this August. The announcement came from what appeared to be a widely known entertainment and gaming news account by someone named Nibellion, who has been on Twitter since at least May 2012. But the news was totally fake and the account, a Nibellion spoof, has duped numerous fans into believing that FromSoftware and Sony are working on a remaster of Bloodborne.
Developed by FromSoftware and released in March 2015 for PS4, Bloodborne is a gothic, Victorian-era inspired action-RPG that took the world by storm. It didn’t have the same level of commercial success as Elden Ring, but Bloodborne went on to score high marks from critics for its tight gameplay, atmospheric soundtrack, intriguing world, and Lovecraftian themes. For all intents and purposes, Bloodborne was a hit among series fans, with folks just dying to return to the world of Yharnam one more time, even after The Old Hunters DLC launched in November 2015.
That’s what allowed the fake Twitter account NIbellion to swoop in and start some Bloodborne discourse with phony news. On May 30, NIbellion—notice the capital “I” here—tweeted that a remastered version of Bloodborne is coming this year. It would include “enhancements” like 60 FPS, native 4K resolution, and ray-traced reflections, with Sony subsidiaries Bluepoint Games and Nixxes Software collaborating on the project together.
I mean, just examine the above tweet for a moment. I already pointed out the misspelled name as a dead giveaway that this is fake news. However, if you look at the PlayStation Blog link NIbellion shared alongside the announcement, you’ll see it’s an archive post from 2015. Clicking on the link takes you to a January 2015 blog about Bloodborne’s longevity. Even before actually going to the PlayStation Blog, there were several signs that this NIbellion isn’t the Nibellion we’ve come to know as the industry insider.
Still, because NIbellion looked like the real deal, folks happily gobbled up the falsehood. Some said it was “the best news ever,” while others used Morbius memes to joke about being trolled. Not everyone fell for it, with some folks warning others that the news was fake. Even the real Nibellion stepped in to set the record straight, saying he doesn’t have “any Bloodborne news” for us.
The fake NIbellion, who goes by a1 online, told Kotaku over Twitter DMs he impersonated Nibellion because his account isn’t verified and it’s easy to create a “bootleg version” of his name since it’s full of lowercase i’s and l’s. a1 said he wasn’t trying to start discourse. He really just wanted to “bait a couple of [his] followers maybe some more,” but the ruse went on longer than expected. Still, a1 said Bloodborne was the obvious game to start a rumor on.
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“Bloodborne is a game that is talked about a lot on Twitter,” a1 said. “Silent Hill, Bloodborne, and ‘GTA VI,’ and couple of other games almost trend or get a baseless rumour almost like every month so the choice was easy to me. Bloodborne, since Silent Hill just got a rumour, and I already did a GTA VI one, but Bloodborne I didn’t so I figured it’ll be an easy choice.”
While a1 found the internet’s reaction to his tweet hilarious, he genuinely hopes another Bloodborne is in the works.
“Well obviously, who doesn’t want a sequel to one of the greatest games of the last generation,” a1 said. “It was my first Fromsoftware game and I very much would like a sequel to it, or even a remaster of the first.”
As for the real Nibellion, he told Kotaku over Twitter DMs that he likes to “keep a low profile” and opted not to give a more detailed response. It seems on Twitter, though, that he’s at least somewhat bummed by the fake account.