The Last Guardian: Sony confirms Fumito Ueda's departure

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 13 December, 2011

Is "committed to completing" the project.

Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian creator Fumito Ueda has left Sony, the PlayStation manufacturer has confirmed.

Ueda is finishing PlayStation 3 exclusive The Last Guardian on a contract basis, and is "committed to completing" the project, Sony said in a statement issued to Gamasutra.

The 41-year-old's departure, exclusively revealed by Eurogamer last month, ends a 14-year career at Sony that has seen the launch two of the most iconic PlayStation games ever. Following The Last Guardian's release, currently set at some time in 2012, Ueda will pursue personal projects.

Eurogamer understands Ueda's departure from Sony internal development studio Team Ico is one of the reasons for the game's protracted development.

Confirmation of Ueda's departure comes after it was revealed that the executive producer of The Last Guardian had left Sony to join a Facebook game developer.

Yoshifusa Hayama, who for four years worked as vice president at Sony Computer Entertainment, joined Monstermind creator Bossa Studios as creative director last week.

In September Sony reassured gamers that Team Ico was still "hard at work" on The Last Guardian, despite the high-profile PS3 exclusive missing the Tokyo Game Show.

The previous month SCE Studios president Shuhei Yoshida gave an exasperated-sounding Last Guardian progress update:

"It's been very difficult in terms of seeing the progress: not as fast as we'd been hoping for, and the team has been under big pressure," he said.

The Last Guardian was delayed earlier this year to an unspecified time in 2012. The cat-eagle adventure was originally slated for a "late 2011" release.

Ueda was director and lead designer on PlayStation 2 games Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, which both took four years to develop.

The Last Guardian was first mentioned as being in development over four years ago, in February 2007, by Japanese magazine Famitsu. It was eventually revealed at E3 2009 with an eye-catching trailer. However, it failed to show at E3 2011, Gamescom 2011 and Tokyo Game Show 2011.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Kingcuong #1 5 months ago

    It's worth the wait knowing the quality that we will eventually get.

    It's just a shame two key members are leaving the team.

  • spiritsnake #2 5 months ago

    developing games for facebook???!!!! seriously!??!!

  • Chufty #3 5 months ago

    It's a shame, he's far too talented to be wasted on Facebook games.

    Still, I have very high hops for TLG.

  • sperties #4 5 months ago

    That creature's always looked like a dog-eagle to me...

  • Psi #5 5 months ago

    look like he's had enough and just wants to see it over the line before moving on... to anything it seems :(

  • Inmediasress #6 5 months ago

    Seems like the title struggles heavily and there are probably lot of shady problems behind it.
    This is damage controll at its finest.

  • verynaughtyboy #7 5 months ago

    I am relieved that Ueda is staying to complete TLG. I am gutted that he is not staying with Sony however. He is among the greatest game creators ever and Sony have facilitated him well. I wonder if he will be given the same freedom and resources wherever he goes next but I doubt it.

    I hope that this isn't the end of the AAA beautiful games that only he makes.

  • ZuluHero #8 5 months ago

    It seems people are getting slightly confused between Ueda and Hayama and their input on the projects. Hayama (as "executive producer" ) going to create "facebook games" is no great shakes, but the loss of Ueda is a real sad blow.

    I can only hope that we haven't seen the last of such a creative talent and I look forward to seeing what "personal projects" he puts his mind to.
    Edited by ZuluHero at 13/12/11 @ 09:02

  • kirankara #9 5 months ago

    Maybe,fbgames is just less stress and he just wants a less stressful life.

    Gotta laugh, at game being described by EG being described as a "cat eagle adventure" s if this a genre in itself lol

  • dose #10 5 months ago

    Please read again guys, Ueda isn't going to be making FB games, it's the executive producer who has already left.
    Edited by dose at 13/12/11 @ 09:26

  • Cjail #11 5 months ago

    I am quite sad :( I really thought it was a fantastic collaboration.
    Edited by Cjail at 13/12/11 @ 09:33

  • Triggerhappytel #12 5 months ago

    Knew it; after they didn't deny it, twas obviously true. Such a shame for Sony though to lose a very imaginative and creative individual. Hopefully Team Ico will remain and another creative leader can step in.

  • kinky_mong #13 5 months ago

    So key staff are jumping ship on The Last Guardian, and the only other great hope for the PS3 is Naughty Dog "revolutionizing story-telling" with yet another sodding zombie game.

    Anyone want to buy a PS3? Comes with 7 games and has barely been used.

  • verynaughtyboy #14 5 months ago

    @kinky_mong
    By any chance do you write reactionary garbage for The Sun and Daily Mail too. We know next to nothing about The Last Of Us and although Ueda has left Sony it does not mean he will no longer develop for PS3 - perhaps he plans to start his own studio.

    Go ahead and sell your PS3, you clearly don't deserve to own one.

  • ollyn #15 5 months ago

    @kinky_mong

    Correct me if I am wrong but this lad has yet to release a game this generation and TLG is going to be completed before he jumps anyway. Given how long it took to make this I wouldn't have expected another game from him on the PS3 anyway. So how this is a detriment to the PS3 is beyond me. Maybe to Sony and their future but given that he couldn't make a game in efficient time this generation he would struggle with a next gen one.

    I think he might be better suited to a smaller digital release projects.

  • kinky_mong #16 5 months ago

    Go ahead and sell your PS3, you clearly don't deserve to own one.

    Funny you should say that, every time I try to play a new game on the PS3 and have to sit through half of an hour of mandatory installs and updates I look to the sky and yell "WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?!"

  • captain_Carl #17 5 months ago

    @kinky_mong Funny, i can't remember the last time i sat through an install or update

  • verynaughtyboy #18 5 months ago

    @kinky_mong
    Really?! Are you really incapable of waiting patiently for 30 minutes? Make some tea, eat a pork pie! Seriously, there are kids going without food... waiting 30mins for your expensive toy to get your game ready isn't so bad.

  • mukki #19 5 months ago

    Not looking good for this game... Still hoping to see and play this next year....

  • kinky_mong #20 5 months ago

    Really?! Are you really incapable of waiting patiently for 30 minutes?

    What can I say, I'm a busy man with a lot going on, so when I do get some downtime in the evening I don't want half an hour of it wasted watching a progress bar. In this day and age I find it unacceptable that a so called powerhouse of a console takes so long to start a game when it's competitors don't.

  • verynaughtyboy #21 5 months ago

    @kinky_mong
    Fair enough. Itdoesn't bother me so much. I try and get updates and installs done while I'm doing other stuff so it doesn't eat into my gaming time. I install all my 360 games before playing them so I have to wait whatever system I game on.

  • Kaminari #22 5 months ago

    "Eurogamer understands Ueda's departure from Sony internal development studio Team Ico is one of the reasons for the game's protracted development."

    Eurogamer understands wrong. It's the other way around.

  • betrayerofhope #23 5 months ago

    kingy mongrol is just a troll.

    i doubt the tool has a ps3 even.