14 DAY TRIAL // The Last Guardian might look like vaporware at the moment, but publisher Sony seems determined to get the game in the hands of players and is bringing in a number of studios to help the Japanese Team ICO on its development process.
The most prominent addition to The Last Guardian developer line-up is Sony Santa Monica, the studio best known for working on the God of War series, which is presumably working on the combat mechanics of the game.
Talking to Wired, Shuhei Yoshida, who leads the Sony Worldwide Studios, said, “Well, you know, it's not just Santa Monica. We have great tech people in Worldwide Studios. We have a central tech group in the U.S. and the UK so we are giving them whatever help they need. Technically, we have the best engineers in the U.S. and Europe, so these teams are helping them, giving advice.”
The Sony executive also mentioned that the company was not talking about a possible launch window because, “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.”
The big problems for The Last Guardian started in late 2011 when the main developer behind the game, Fumito Ueda, quit working directly for Sony and became a contractor, although the company insists that he is still fully involved with the game.
One of the producers, Yoshifusa Hayama, left Sony in order to join a social gaming company, and there were some rumors that the whole game was being cancelled.
The Last Guardian is seen as spiritual successor to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and will watch the developing relationship between a griffon like creature and a young boy.