The Last Guardian

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The Last Guardian

Postby Riku Rose » Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:40 am

The Last Guardian – the PlayStation-exclusive title from Team ICO which has now been in development for some eight years – is still “absolutely in the mix” at Sony, according to Scott Rohde, one of the men in charge of Sony’s roster of fully-owned studios.

In a conversation with IGN, the topic of The Last Guardian came up. “You’re going to be very frustrated by this answer,” Rohde said, “but it is 100 percent the God’s honest truth, and that is that we want to make great games. And 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.”

When asked whether it was still a PlayStation 3 game or if it’s migrated to PlayStation 4, Rohde said that he’s “not going to 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 Worldwide Studios. That’s the most you’re gonna get.”

Later in the conversation, Rohde noted 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 PlayStation 3-exclusive game from Team ICO was revealed at E3 2009. But at E3 the following year, it was a no-show, and was later confirmed for release in 2011. But 2011 came and went, and there was no The Last Guardian.

In March of 2011, we saw the game running for the first time, but a month later, The Last Guardian saw its first of many delays. Team ICO founder Fumito Ueda confirmed the game was still in production just at the time that the game’s executive producer, Yoshifusa Hayama, quit Sony to work elsewhere. Then, Ueda himself also quit, though still promised to work on the game in a contractor capacity.

That brings us to 2012, when Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida noted that The Last Guardian is “making progress”. At Gamescom later that year, he again confirmed the title was still in development, right around the time Team ICO’s long-time producer left Sony.

By early 2012, Fumito Ueda said the game is still being developed, but then, come June, the game was said to be in hiatus. Meanwhile, Sony’s Japan Studio prioritized Knack and Puppeteer over The Last Guardian, while Sony said in September that it was waiting to “reintroduce” the game. Last we heard, Ueda himself said he was ”terribly sorry” for The Last Guardian’s epic development cycle. Team ICO last put out a game in 2005, when Shadow of the Colossus came to PlayStation 2, and didn't put out a product for the duration of the PlayStation 3's prime lifecycle.

Will the game finally reemerge at E3, which is only a few months away? Time will tell.


We've been due a good tease for a few months now.
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Axm » Fri Mar 14, 2014 9:13 pm

By now they have definitely held out to make it a PS4 title. Here's why I think that is.
-It's a first party game after all and Sony wants to sell more PS4's at this point.
-They need time to "reintroduce" the game.
-It's taken them a long time for what reason? Because they have a smaller team and are slow ofcourse but also because they were working on it being a next gen title probably these last couple years without exact knowledge of specs. So they have been trying to make something as safe as possible while still pushing the boundaries.
-They want the install base of PS4's to grow first so they can maximize profit on a game already 7 years in the making.
-Because Team Ico is small yet popular, they are wanted by Sony but based on their profitability at this point, probably not needed anymore once The Last Guardian is out. I think Team Ico realizes this and are stretching the production time out as long as possible so they can hold on to their jobs as long as possible. After The Last Guardian ships my guess is Sony will close off Team Ico or have them become independent.
-Because Stone Cold says so. (I brought it back for no reason and im sorry)
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Crimson Ryan » Sat Mar 15, 2014 6:09 am

Too true. Team Ico are dead meat after this game is out..
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby ys » Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:11 pm

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/sony-w ... 0-6422697/

They're still working on it apparently. I liked the most recent comment by the way :
"Give the game to Ubisoft, they'll probably have a sequel out by Christmas." :lol:

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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Kenny » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:30 am

I dunno, it seemed like another one trick pony game. Give the main protagonist a partner they care about and then promptly fuck them both over by the end. It looked like the aftermath of SotC and ICO ramming into each other at full speed, pretty uninspired stuff.

It might've been a decent game but i'll only be interested in another Team Ico title if they do something different for a change. But that's if they ever make another game or even finish this one.
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Riku Rose » Mon Oct 13, 2014 12:28 pm

It's been confirmed that as soon as the game is done Ueda is no longer going to be at Sony or Team ICO, so with a new head whatever comes next could be quite different.

SotC and ICO where hardly big sellers so I can't see how this will make back it's money after almost 10 years in development. I imagine Sony just wants to get it out just to make back some of the money they've already lost. If I was the head of Sony there is no way I would give Team ICO the money for a game again unless it was something that could be done very very cheap.
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby OL » Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:11 pm

Riku Rose wrote: SotC and ICO where hardly big sellers...



Pointless of me to say it, but SotC actually ended up doing very well. It ended up with a Greatest Hits box eventually, so it must have sold above a certain margin.
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Kenny » Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:28 pm

Riku Rose wrote: It's been confirmed that as soon as the game is done Ueda is no longer going to be at Sony or Team ICO, so with a new head whatever comes next could be quite different.


On the one hand, that sounds good. But on the other hand, it could be bad if this new guy doesn't know what he's doing.

It was really stupid to not give these guys a deadline in the first place but if speculation is true and they were just holding onto their jobs, well then that's kind of sad.
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Riku Rose » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:16 pm

OL wrote:
Riku Rose wrote: SotC and ICO where hardly big sellers...



Pointless of me to say it, but SotC actually ended up doing very well. It ended up with a Greatest Hits box eventually, so it must have sold above a certain margin.


Well you only needed to sell about 400k copies to be branded a greatest hit and while it was a hit back then most games of that scope would be seen as a failure if they came out now. SotC I'm sure did well it just wasn't a massive hit when it comes to sales compared to other games. I'm sure they would have made money on 400k copies being sold since it's a small team and wasn't in production a long time. My main point was that I can't see them making a profit now and they can't piggy back of the fact they made ICO and SotC as they weren't massive hits with the masses.

Team ICO has been making The Last Guardian for so long that an entire console generation has passed them by. It's crazy to think since SotC Naughty Dog has made 4 games and soon a 5th, we've got 2 GTA games, the entire Assassins Creed series. There's a story to be told about what's going on at Team ICO's offices, I wonder what's actually going on between 9-5. It's similar to how I would love to know what Yu Suzuki was doing at SEGA for all those years after Shenmue II as I imagine he didn't sit at a desk sleeping 5 days a week.
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Henry Spencer » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:59 pm

^The PS3/360/Wii generation is also the longest ever, by a long way. (Eight years altogether, wasn't it?) When you factor that in, it makes even more ludicrous.

As for Yu Suzuki - his routine was probably like this - worked on Shenmue 3 for a limited time, game was halted/canned due to SEGA downsizing and merging with Sammy, next went to work on arcade games again, which were all cancelled (we know about Psy-Phi), then he worked on Shenmue Online...cancelled. Now he works on mobile phone games that stay in Japan! Enjoy!

Also, your signature is kinda funny now that I've seen Gone Girl.

Kenny wrote: I dunno, it seemed like another one trick pony game. Give the main protagonist a partner they care about and then promptly fuck them both over by the end. It looked like the aftermath of SotC and ICO ramming into each other at full speed, pretty uninspired stuff.

It might've been a decent game but i'll only be interested in another Team Ico title if they do something different for a change. But that's if they ever make another game or even finish this one.


I dunno man, I seem to recall you were excited for the game...five years ago. :lol:

Then again, we all were. At least FFXV (formally Versus XIII, which was another big Japanese game stuck in development hell) actually looks like it's getting released - The Last Guardian is kind of a joke, at this point. I do wonder what else Ueda would be doing with his time if he wasn't, ahem, "working" on this game?
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Kenny » Mon Oct 13, 2014 6:11 pm

I really wasn't. I think I was called out as pessimistic about it. :P

I think I even mentioned if they did something involving a pack of wolves or something else i'd be more interested.
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby ys » Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:55 pm

Riku Rose wrote:There's a story to be told about what's going on at Team ICO's offices, I wonder what's actually going on between 9-5. It's similar to how I would love to know what Yu Suzuki was doing at SEGA for all those years after Shenmue II as I imagine he didn't sit at a desk sleeping 5 days a week.[/color]

That also interests me. Those behind the scenes kind of things. But truthful ones, not the polished nice versions.

I got to think of a thread that I made before : viewtopic.php?f=15&t=47189
Some Swedes who worked on The Last Guardian talked a bit about it in a Swedish magazine. From what I remember they were frustrated with the situation at Team Ico and left eventually. It was basically what they said here : http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/07/08/ ... king-games
They didn't seem to have a clue though if it would still be released or not just before they left.

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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Riku Rose » Tue Jun 09, 2015 4:40 pm

The Last Guardian will finally be getting a re-reveal at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, according to a new report.

In The Guardian's rundown of its most anticipated games for E3 2015, the outlet claims it has "on very good authority that this will be the year that Team Ico finally presents its follow-up to much loved classics Ico and Shadow of the Colossus."


This would make E3 for me.
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby Crimson Ryan » Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:10 pm

It's been years, surely they have something to show by now..
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Re: The Last Guardian

Postby sand4fish » Wed Jun 10, 2015 2:28 pm

According to Just Add Water Developments' boss Stewart Gilray, Mark Cerny, the architect behind the PlayStation 4, has been brought on board to see the long-delayed title through to completion.

"And that certain somebody is the guy who helped out with the architecture of Vita and PS4. I’m led to believe his team is now running Last Guardian to finish," he said in an interview on the latest episode of the PS Nation podcast.


Source: PS Nation Podcast

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