The Last Guardian, the third in the Team ICO spiritual series that includes classics Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, has been an on-again, off-again project since its development began in 2007. It’s known that the game is in development, but with tumultuous changes in the development team (members of Team ICO, including director Fumito Ueda, have left during the game’s lengthy stay in purgatory), the future of the game is still relatively uncertain to the general public. Scott Rohde of Sony Computer Entertainment can’t give any details, but he insists that the game is still a point of focus for Sony and Team ICO.
When asked about whether The Last Guardian is being developed for PlayStation 3, its initial launch platform, or making the current-gen jump to PlayStation 4, Rohde responded that he wouldn’t “announce what platform it’s coming on, who’s working on it, who’s involved. But that is still a title that’s absolutely in the mix at [Sony subsidiary] Worldwide Studios. That’s the most you’re gonna get.” It doesn’t do much to assuage gamers’ concerns, but hey, at least it’s still going to happen… right?
One has to wonder, then, how important the game is to Sony; apparently, the game is stuck between the ardent demand of the gaming community and the attempt to make the best game possible. Said Rohde, “… when we see that the public is so interested in a specific game, of course that drives us to want to complete that game. But it also drives us to want to make it great. We would not want to ship that game if we don’t think it’s great.” He later added that he “actually like[s] talking about The Last Guardian. I love that people are still interested in it. That’s an honor to us. That’s not just me spinning… It’s really cool that people are still interested in it, and we’re trying to make the best thing we can out of The Last Guardian.”
The Last Guardian isn’t dead, and yet it hasn’t yet been fully born. It’s an uncomfortable position for any game–usually, the term applied to such a situation is “development hell”–and it risks losing the public’s interest if no mention is made of the game’s development progress. Here’s hoping Sony will relieve some of that tension by doling out more information at this year’s E3.
Source: IGN