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The Last Guardian creator "terribly sorry" for ongoing delays

Sony's reaction to him quitting "was not easy".

Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, has apologised for the lengthy development process of upcoming project The Last Guardian.

Ueda told Edge he was "terribly sorry for that for various reasons I have kept my audience waiting for such a long time".

Will no one set him free?

The Last Guardian has now been in development for more than six years, although Ueda admitted his personal creative work was completed "a long time ago".

"The details of when, where and how it will be completed are beyond my control," he continued. "The original staff members on Ico and SOTC are just as fussy over details as I am. I always want to create quickly, and I always want to increase the rate of production."

Ueda also briefly discussed his decision to quit Sony Computer Entertainment as a full-time employee in December 2011 (he now works on a freelance contract basis and is "committed to completing" the project).

"It's difficult to explain [the decision to go freelance], but in a nutshell it was because I felt a sense of crisis within myself about a lot of things. It's hard to [say exactly what], but in terms of my own growth and career and so on."

Asked what Sony's reaction was, Ueda explained "it was not easy. I can't go into the details just yet. It will be good to be able to discuss it along with a post-mortem of The Last Guardian someday".

When we last heard about the game from Sony - last month - it was described as "well staffed" and "in development".

Originally in development for PlayStation 3, Ueda asked gamers to "please keep an eye out" ahead of Sony's PlayStation 4 reveal event earlier this year. We've yet to hear officially if the game has switched platforms, but with PS4s now on shop shelves it seems increasingly likely.