Gamers looking forward to horror game Allison Road were dealt a blow recently after developers Lilith announced that the game was being shut down for undisclosed reasons. Team17, the company lined up to publish the game, has now come forward to reveal that the game was cancelled by "mutual agreement".

In a statement to VG247, a Team17 spokesperson said: "After a long consideration between Lilith owner Chris Kesler and ourselves, we have reached a mutual agreement to end our collaboration on publishing Allison Road under Team17's Games label. We love the concept and value Chris's talent highly, but sometime things pan out differently than expected as game development and publishing have so many layers of complexity.

"The whole team here wish all the best to Chris on his current and future projects for which, before being a business partner, we are also a fan."

The statement is almost identical in sentiment to one posted to Facebook by Kesler himself on 15 June, in which he wrote: "After a long consideration between Team17 and ourselves, we have reached a mutual agreement to end our collaboration on publishing Allison Road under Team17's Games label.

"Sometimes things pan out differently than expected as game development and publishing have so many layers of complexity... We'd like to especially thank everyone for their support through-out, it has and will always be appreciated!"

Both parties are clearly reading from the same song sheet, offering little hard cold facts behind the game's cancellation. It comes as a double-blow to fans of Kojima's PT, the playable teaser for Silent Hills, to which Allison Road was meant to serve as a spiritual successor following the cancellation of Silent Hills by Konami, and PT's removal from sale.

Whether or not Allison Road will be picked up by another studio or be reincarnated in some other form remains to be seen, although with games like Resident Evil 7 and Outlast 2 on the way, the first person horror space is already getting a little crowded, meaning players may well have moved on if or when Allison Road ever does see the light of day.

For all the latest video game news follow us on Twitter @IBTGamesUK.