It wouldn’t be an E3 press conference without rumours pertaining to The Last Guardian now, would it? And on the eve of this year’s annual trade show, Sony has reaffirmed that Team Ico’s long-awaited spiritual successor to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus is still alive and kicking.
In the wake of speculation curated by IGN Russia, Sony’s Scott Rohde took to Twitter to unequivocally debunk the rumour and confirm that the title has not in fact got the axe.
@notaxation @yosp and I laughed at this rumor over dinner. The Last Guardian has NOT been cancelled.
— Scott Rohde (@RohdeScott) June 8, 2014
Initially announced via a teaser trailer during E3 in 2009, The Last Guardian quickly stole the show as one of the most-anticipated exclusives in the PlayStation 3 roster. However, following Fumito Ueda’s departure from Team Ico in 2011, the game has since went on an indefinite hiatus.
Fans of the studio need not fret, though; according to Sony, the game has undergone a bout of restructuring in the last few years. Moreover, the company itself has stated that it is awaiting the right time to re-introduce the nebulous, mythic beast back into the public sphere.
Whether this means The Last Guardian has made the transition to the PlayStation 4 during its time on the proverbial development shelf remains to be seen. One thing is for certain, though: of all the E3’s since its announcement, with the dawn of new hardware along with a somewhat sparse line-up of exclusives, 2014 could well be the year that Sony welcomes back Team Ico’s long-gestating project into the limelight.
Will E3 2014 herald the long-awaited return of Team Ico’s The Last Guardian? We’ll have the full details in the wake of Sony’s press conference, which is due to take place tonight, 6pm Pacific Time.