Ever since the first delay for The Last Guardian was announced on April 19, 2011 Sony has made it a point to make sure that at least once every quarter some representative from the company confirms that the long-overdue game has not been canceled. The vast majority of the time this honor falls on the shoulders of Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, but not today. No, today we have received the traditional “this game is not delayed” message directly from the man responsible for the seven-year development hell that is The Last Guardian, the game’s designer Fumito Ueda.
Speaking on his own website, Ueda confirmed that although he is no longer a full-time Sony employee he has continued with his personal quest to waste as much of the company’s resources as possible by working as a freelance contractor on The Last Guardian.
Ueda’s exact statement reads:
“As some of you may have heard, I left Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Studio some time ago to pursue my creative passions. Nevertheless, I continue working on The Last Guardian as a freelance contributor.”
“While it’s been a long time coming, The Last Guardian remains under my creative supervision and is still in development by an incredibly talented team. I should also mention that details regarding The Last Guardian’s release is solely decided by Sony Computer Entertainment, not myself. Please keep an eye out for their official announcement.”
“Moving forward, it is my intent to continue my involvement with The Last Guardian project, as well as pursue new creative projects with a fresh perspective. As I rekindle my passions as a creator, I look forward to seeing where it will take me, and I deeply appreciate your support during this transition.”
The one interesting aspect to today’s The Last Guardian update is that it comes just a few days before Sony is expected to announce the PlayStation 4. This has naturally led to speculation that Team Ico might finally be wrapping up development on the title. While that is an entirely reasonable conclusion to reach, we find that it’s best not to count any of your giant bird creatures until they hatch when it comes to TLG. We will let you know as soon as anything official is announced.
On a personal note, this story marks the sixth time that I have wrote a “The Last Guardian is still in development” story for WGTC. So, congratulations to me!