Given how long The Last Guardian has been lingering in development, Sony has been forced to continually renew the trademark for the long-gestating title with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. However, yesterday brought news that the Japanese publisher decided against renewing the filing on this most recent instance, but Sony confirmed to GameSpot that this hiccup was the cause of an internal administrative error, and that Team Ico’s by-now infamous game is still in the works.
The publisher didn’t disclose any additional information at this time, simply reiterating that The Last Guardian — a game that has allegedly flirted with cancellation in the past — is still on course for a release at some point in the near future.
According to Sony’s Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, the company is simply waiting for the right time to reintroduce Team Ico’s ethereal project to the modern audience, fuelling speculation that the game is being rebuilt with PlayStation 4 in mind. Granted, this is yet to be confirmed, but it would certainly explain why The Last Guardian suddenly became AWOL following its reveal in 2009.
Is it possible that both Sony and Team Ico are gearing up for a re-reveal during E3 in June? It’s possible. But don’t be too surprised if the latter studio plays its cards close to its chest up until a window of time when The Last Guardian is truly ready to be ushered back into the public eye. After all, this is a game that has become the unfortunate poster child for software lost to development hell, but if Team Ico has its way, it won’t be too much longer before the action-adventure title claws its way out in order to prove the naysayers wrong.