Sony US and UK teams helping out on The Last Guardian

By Fred Dutton Published 21 February, 2012

"It's playable, but not to the point we can talk about the timing of launch."

Sony development teams in the US and UK are helping Team Ico finish up long-in-the-offing PlayStation 3 adventure The Last Guardian, Sony has confirmed.

Speaking in an interview with Wired, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida explained that Sony Santa Monica - the team behind God of War - is among the studios offering help.

"Well, you know, it's not just Santa Monica," he said.

"We have great tech people in Worldwide Studios. We have a central tech group in the US and the UK so we are giving them whatever help they need. Technically, we have the best engineers in the US and Europe, so these teams are helping them, giving advice."

Elsewhere in the interview, Yoshida reiterated that Team Ico is making slow but steady progress on the game, and "sometimes the team has to go back and review things."

"There's a vision that we want to realise but it's very very tough and technical issue that the team is tackling and some plans have to be made to evaluate and go through the process.

"At one point the progress was great, so we talked about the timing of the launch in the past. But now it's making progress, but still not to the level - it's playable, but not to the point that we can talk about the timing of launch."

Team Ico's first project since PlayStation 2 classic Shadow of the Colossus was first announced way back in May 2009, but precious little has been heard since.

Late last year, Eurogamer learned that studio head Fumito Ueda is no longer a permanent Sony employee and is finishing the game on a freelance basis.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (47) Latest comment 3 months ago

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

  • Nevflinn #1 3 months ago

    I'm torn between what to wish for; "Please be great" or "Please be released".
    I feel like I can only have one or the other. :C

  • Ranger_Ryu #2 3 months ago

    aka they want it to be released quicker.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #3 3 months ago

    Nah, you can have both.
    "Please let it take the time it takes, so it'll be great."

  • CaptainQuint #4 3 months ago

    This needs to be officially delayed till the next gen, no question.

  • sfp_noodle #5 3 months ago

    I can see this being PS3's swansong in 2013. I would love to see it this Christmas, but it looks highly unlikely. As long as it gets finished, and to the highest standard, I'll wait.

    Most other studios would have given up on a game long ago if it took this long to make, especially if the director left. Sony deserves credit for sticking with the project. The game is unlikely to even shift 1 million copies so it’s nice to see a publisher rating quality and diversity over sales figures.

  • mattk84 #6 3 months ago

    Does sound like it could well be being rushed now.
    I've just finished Ico and am working my way through SOTC but the visuals in that vid don't look much of an improvement over those.

    I assume the rush is on to get an E3 2012 presentation ready.
    Edited by mattk84 at 21/02/12 @ 23:44

  • ExplodingClown #7 3 months ago

    This game is the reason I bought a PS3....

  • Mister-Wario #8 3 months ago

    I bought one for Kingdom Hearts 3, myself :)

  • TheEarlOfZinger #9 3 months ago

    The bird dies.

  • DigitalScars #10 3 months ago

    It's funny that Shadows of Collossus was one of the last games on ps2 and i still say it was the last great game on it. Looks like last Guardian could end up being the same for PS3 should it take much longer.

  • walidb123 #11 3 months ago

    I don't want this to bomb when it's released but it's taking such a long time to complete development that you do wonder if there are issues with it.
    Edited by walidb123 at 21/02/12 @ 23:57

  • funkateer #12 3 months ago

    Between the lines I kind of pick up the sense that the problems are mostly tech related. Team Ico might have been overly ambitious again to the point that things became rather unplayable. I mean, let's face it, Shadow of the Colossus was kind of treading a rather fine line in the tech ambitions versus playability department (which fortunately turned out rather great in that case).

    Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic and reading into things that aren't there, but it seems to me that Sony are just putting some extra weight in there to pull off another ambitious masterpiece.

    As an aside, here's an interesting analysis of SotC to keep up your appetite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYNAqX4QkVE

  • Yuroko #13 3 months ago

    Hope this isn't a case of it's costing them an absolute fortune so far and they need to get it out of the door quickly, rather than a case of it being too awesome for one development team to make and can only be made by three.

  • -cerberus- #14 3 months ago

    @ExplodingClown: Same here. Would absolutely hate to see this moved to next-gen...

  • captain_Elsley35 #15 3 months ago

    Looking forward to this.
    Just pray Team Ico and Polyphony Digital never team up to make a game. It would beat Duke Nukem's development time hands down.

  • hoppie00 #16 3 months ago

    I don't think Sony deserves credit, so much as chastisement for allowing it to go on this long and become this complicated that they've had to ask international teams to come in and finish the job.

    It's embarrassing for them and shows poor management.

  • Snake_2011 #17 3 months ago

    this is good news Sony want gamers to have it on PS3 & with the Studios helping can only be a good thing.

  • Snake_2011 #18 3 months ago

    hoppie00 it shows creative freedom to me just team ico abused it a bit.
    Edited by Snake_2011 at 22/02/12 @ 03:40

  • ShiroBen #19 3 months ago

    Good, more time before I'm forced to buy a PS3.

  • Abdu@EG #20 3 months ago

    Please no fuc*ing 3D support in this game. The designer wants to push the system with amazing animation and AI. The PS3 can't do all that. So fuck 3D

  • craziii #21 3 months ago

    hmm, so is team ico dead? with the original team gone :( I have very little hope.

  • gandhimaster #22 3 months ago

    I am very worried about this game now. Sounds like a real mess to me.

  • bionic_v2 #23 3 months ago

    One thing is for sure, when it arrives, I will be buying it *new*.
    I've always felt the need to support those games which have had much love spent on them, no matter what the reviews say. This includes Gran Turismo 5, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, LittleBigPlanet. All multi platform games, I buy secondhand.

  • menage #24 3 months ago

    So basically they can't pull it off?

  • spielorg #25 3 months ago

    That would make a lot of sense. I remember reading a recent interview that the former Santa Monica head is now heading SCEJ. Probably working with other internal studios but more closely with SM.

    I'm expecting some changes in SCEJ coming in from there with that news.

    This was the guy under whom the SM studio released God of War, Twisted Metal and some others.

  • Nico4 #26 3 months ago

    Well... hopefully it still means the development won't be botched up or something.

  • BAM! #27 3 months ago

    The game is massively ambitious, some of the tech challenges involved in getting that giant creature moving around confined spaces in a believable way are enough to make most devs weep. If they pull it off the game will be years ahead of its time. I just fear they are having to make compromises elsewhere.

  • super_monty #28 3 months ago

    This was always going to be a difficult project, hats off to Sony for sticking with a niche game for a particular set of fans.

    They knew when commissioning it was never going to easy nor would it be a commercial success.

    Good to see them getting their other studios in to help what is a relatively small team.

    I get the feeling that this one was for the fans.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #29 3 months ago

    @CaptainQuint

    "This needs to be officially delayed till the next gen, no question."

    Sure, why don't Sony throw a ton more money at it.

  • TelexStar #30 3 months ago

    @DigitalScars - Okami came out after Colossus and I'd give it that honour personally.

  • RoOhDaMite #31 3 months ago

    It really depends on this one game whether I get myself a PS3 or don't.

  • Triggerhappytel #32 3 months ago

    The thing is, Team Ico are only about 35 strong - that's much to few to develop a top quality current-gen game. After Ueda leaves when the game ships hopefully they'll appoint a new studio head and gradually increase the size of the team to more realistic levels. In the meantime whilst finding their feet, they could work on a downloadable game as a much faster, smaller, less ambitious project after struggling with TLG for 6 years plus.

  • Retro_ #33 3 months ago

    So, Team ICO, great games, shit coders?

  • Po1ymorph #34 3 months ago

    @ExplodingClown This game will BE the reason I buy a PS3.

    This game makes me feel all funny inside.

    Most anticipated game of this generation, maybe of all generations....maybe?.

  • Retro_ #35 3 months ago

    also, thank god Gearbox hasn't been tasked to finish it, or Rebellion !!

  • AnthonyDaniels #36 3 months ago

    Good, Sony needed to find new ways to motivate them

  • samezac #37 3 months ago

    thank you sony to help them out :-P

  • Fantomex #38 3 months ago

    It's pretty sad to hear that other development teams need to help finish this. You'd think a developer that created 2 great games of the last generation would have the talent to do it themselves.

    I just hope it turns out to be a masterpiece or I fear this could be Team Ico's last game.

  • Architect_z #39 3 months ago

    I've still got to complete SOTC HD, and that is like no other game thats been released. I wanna make sure the devs are happy with it when they release it, we know the quality of the games they produce and if this is something truly epic, then hopefully *fingers crossed* it'll be worth the wait.

  • Golgo #40 3 months ago

    Wow - sounds like Team Ico seriously over-reached themselves technically. I hope the remedial influence of the other teams doesn't dilute their overall artistic vision too much.

  • AnotherIdiot #41 3 months ago

    I thought Sony were credited with giving these devs appropriate breathing space, not breathing down their necks and pressuring them to bang it out the door, they must be desperate.

  • carlosdfn #42 3 months ago

    I'm baffled that it took them so long to do this.

  • Bilstar #43 3 months ago

    I don't think this is gonna turn out too well...

  • Ryze #44 3 months ago

    Fantastic. I knew we'd eventually get to the bottom of things.

    Hopefully this will now see the light of day, and with God of War levels of polish.

    Get the best coders at Naughty Dog and the Killzone studio (Guerilla?) on the case in consultancy roles, too!
    Edited by Ryze at 22/02/12 @ 10:48

  • gandhimaster #45 3 months ago

    At the risk of opening up old wounds, do we think this has something to do with what Sony promised the PS3 could do when they announced it? The developers had all these ideas and started on the planning and engine only to find it wasn't practical (or even possible) to achieve with final hardware?

  • WandaMaximoff #46 3 months ago

    i hear "This is why i brought a PS3" allot when i hear about this game....

    id say that has summed up Sony this gen.... we are still waiting for you to come to the table with all them great promises.

    GT5
    MGS
    FF13
    GOD OF WAR

    All have been pretty disappointments in one way or another. These Sony staple games ALL should have been better.

    I HOPE that this game is different... however we have waited so long for it i fear we will be on next Gen before its out! Delays like this only mean one this in this industry.... BAD

  • LEONOFDEATH #47 3 months ago

    @AnotherIdiot THey have given them plenty of freedom, But its been abused. They are now telling them to wrap it up because its taken the life of the PS3 for them to get to this point, Where its still not done.