Charlie Shikany

Charlie Shikany

It takes two to tango.

Where is "The Last Guardian" I wanna play it so

Charlie Shikany
Charlie Shikany 10/1/2014 5:25:56 PM

The Last Guardian TGS 2010 Trailer [HD]

The Last Guardian TGS 2010 Trailer [HD] Developer: Team Ico Release: 11/1/2010 Genre: Action Platform: PS3 Publisher: SCEA Follow Machinima on Twitter! Machi...

Where is "The Last Guardian"? I wanna play it so bad. 

Sony has just announced the games that will be presented by the company at this year’s annual Tokyo Game Show, which runs from Sept. 18-21. And, while there are certainly titles to get excited about, such as Bloodborne, The Order: 1886, and LittleBigPlanet 3, there are a few glaring holes in Sony’s lineup. The biggest one, the one that has been missing since its announcement almost five years ago, is The Last Guardian.

The Last Guardian wasn’t showed at E3 in June, it didn’t appear at Gamescom in August, and it’s not coming to Tokyo Game Show in September. So where is it? Does it even exist anymore? Let’s go back to the start to answer these questions.

Announced back in 2009 at E3, with job postings pointing to the project dating all the way back to January 2008, The Last Guardian immediately impressed critics and fans. Players knew this was going to be a game filled with emotional twists and powerful, cinematic gameplay. There was success running in its blood, seeing as how Fumito Ueda, the lead designer and director of Team Ico’s two previous games, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, was again returning to lead the development of The Last Guardian. Sony had formally announced The Last Guardian to be coming exclusively to the PlayStation 3 in 2011, but that would obviously not come to pass. 

Fans eagerly awaited news of the project at Sony’s E3 2010 presentation, and while they were treated with the news of an Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Remastered Edition coming to the PS3, nothing was said about The Last Guardian. 2011 was still the promised release date as of the 2010 Tokyo Game Show. Fans had now started to grow skeptical. Would Sony keep pushing for a 2011 release date on the PS3 when the PS4 was sure to be announced very soon? Could The Last Guardian get delayed so it would be brought to the next generation?
A huge blow struck Team Ico at the start of 2011. In February of that year it was announced that Ueda would be leaving Team Ico in 10 months, but would remain working with Sony through the end of the project. Despite a tease at a possibility, a demo for The Last Guardian did not end up included with the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection. 2011 ended and The Last Guardian was officially delayed, with no new release date in place.

2012 came and went with no major announcements. The Last Guardian didn’t make an appearance at all at E3 that year, and journalists started questioning if the game had been scrapped. Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s President of Worldwide Studios, assured that The Last Guardian was coming, even going so far as to say that it was even playable at one point. Technical issues have been plaguing the project from the start though, and Team Ico didn’t feelThe Last Guardian was ready, as resolving these issues was proving harder than anticipated. Not wanting to disappoint fans any further, a 2013 release date was never confirmed by Tea Ico or Yoshida.

For a second year, E3 was without any The Last Guardian announcements in 2013. Sony Computer Entertainment of America President Jack Tretton had mentioned that the game was put on hiatus, but Yoshida immediately released a statement saying that it was still in active development. A few months later, Yoshida would elaborate on his statement, saying that Sony was waiting for a good time to reintroduce audiences to The Last Guardian.
There were still no new announcements from Team Ico or Sony about The Last Guardian at the dawn of 2014. By this point it seems that even members of Team Ico’s staff had gotten fed up with the development of the project, with two artists leaving to join a new indie studio. For a third year in a row there was no E3 announcement, or even a mention, from Sony during its press event. When asked why there was nothing, Sony’s Scott Rohde reaffirmed the game’s current development progress, saying Sony would show it when it was ready.

And here we are, right before the 2014 Tokyo Game Show. With Sony’s lack of announcements for The Last Guardian, it seems safe to assume that we will not even be seeing a new trailer until next year at the earliest. It also seems safe to assume, despite originally being announced for the PS3, that The Last Guardian will actually be a PS4 title, or at least released for both platforms. For everything else, it seems we will all just have to wait until Sony thinks the time is right and the project is in a good enough position to be re-announced. Here’s to hoping.

Do you think we’ll see The Last Guardian in 2015? Do you even care anymore? Let us know in the comments section below.  
Charlie Shikany
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Charlie Shikany

It takes two to tango.

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