Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

The Metroid Prime series has always received renown for fun gameplay loop while packing challenging bosses, incredible environments and devious puzzles. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond looks to offer just as much, but really, the promise of a new Retro Studios title after all these years is enough for us.

The teaser sees an individual climbing a giant robot as a timer counts down to a shockwave. They see it coming from a distance and eventually clamber up the robot’s head, activating it and lifting off to avoid the calamity. Or rather, just barely, as they’re swept up at the last second.

There’s not much else to go off, but the new title will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via the Epic Games Store. A release date is still to come, but with this teaser seemingly featuring “real” gameplay, it should be interesting to see how things pan out. Stay tuned for announcements and updates from The Game Awards in the meantime.

The studio has been at work on its mystery debut title for several years now, but 2023 may finally be the year where we get to learn more about what it is. In a New Year’s message (courtesy of Famitsu), Ueda wrote, “All of genDesign is working hard to be able to finally announce something, so please give us your support.”

Meanwhile, taking to Twitter, genDesign shared a similar message, saying, “It’s finally a year where we can deliver a lot of topics to everyone! We are doing our best, so please look forward to it.”

Details on genDesign’s title are scant, though it was confirmed in 2020 that the studio had signed into a publishing partnership with Epic Games. A sliver of artwork from the game was also shared two years back.

新年あけましておめでとうございます。

いよいよ皆様にたくさんの話題をお届けできる一年に！と頑張っておりますので、ぜひご期待ください。
本年もよろしくお願い申し上げます。

genDESIGNでは現在開発中のプロジェクトに向けキャリア・新卒を問わず仲間を募集しています。https://t.co/jKIVMfFWuK pic.twitter.com/bUu5TODraB

— genDESIGN (@genDESIGN_Inc) December 31, 2022

Team Ico’s games have continually focused on the ideas of eliciting such strong responses from gamers and its swansong title The Last Guardian is no exception in this regard. Released in 2016, The Last Guardian was perhaps the most polarizing game released that year with some fans calling it one of the best games of all time while others criticized its controls, AI, and performance issues. More than 5 years later, many have come around to appreciating its better aspects and the bold strides it took in its game design. To that effect, the time seems ripe to ask – what made The Last Guardian one hell of a game?

The Last Guardian is perhaps most well known for its extremely protracted development cycle. First unveiled as Project Trico back in 2009, The Last Guardian was initially supposed to release in 2011. However, the game went dark after the announcement as the development shifted to Sony’s next console, the PS4. Game director Fumito Ueda also left Team Ico to start his own studio GenDesign, which was then given the responsibilities for developing the game. A long period of almost 4 years passed without any news of the game. Just when most fans had completely given up hopes of playing The Last Guardian, the game resurfaced again at E3 2015 with a final release window of 2016.

The Last Guardian sees players taking control of an unnamed boy who wakes up to see himself in an old fort of sorts. Upon waking up, he sees the towering behemoth of a creature by the name of Trico in shackles as he cries in pain from all the spears pierced into his furry body. You help Trico get back up on his own four feet by providing him treatment and he starts to become friendly towards you. The game primarily revolved around players having to solve puzzles and overcome a slew of obstacles as a team to somehow get off this high-walled fort. The story isn’t the most complex, which isn’t too surprising considering that Fumito Ueda is at the helm. It intentionally leaves gaps in this very vague plot and expects players to fill those gaps with one’s own interpretation of it all.

Much like Team Ico’s previous works, companionship is the central theme of the narrative. Over the course of the game, players are expected to organically form a deep connection with the beast. Ueda masterfully uses game design techniques to establish this emotional connection without the use of expository dialogues or extensive backstories. Trico cannot survive without the nimble nature and the intelligence of the boy and the boy cannot hope to escape this gargantuan facility without the sheer strength of the creature.

Puzzles are built on this very foundation, and simply getting from point A to point B is just half the battle won. Oftentimes, you will be required to open up doors or push those pesky water paintings of an eye to help Trico get to you. On the contrary, however, you cannot hope to survive enemy encounters with the stone soldiers without Trico’s strength – and as such, you might need to lure enemies to where the beast can take care of them. Other times, you might need to just hitch a ride on the back of Trico to get through certain sections, or you might need to command Trico to stand up near a wall to get to where you need to go.

The game expertly balances the nature of these puzzles to give both characters ample amounts of time in the spotlight. However, controlling Trico is easier said than done. Unlike most video game companions, Trico is controlled by an entirely self-governed AI meaning it has a mind of its own. Thus, you can give Trico commands – but it is entirely up to his virtual brain cells if he listens to you or not. This is perhaps the biggest point of contention regarding the game, as it’s entirely possible that he just doesn’t pay attention to your commands which can be very frustrating at times.

That said, this is also one of the biggest reasons why players start to get more and more attached to this beast as they overcome increasingly tough obstacles together without any firm method of communication. A game is defined by its rules, but The Last Guardian can break those rules at certain moments to illustrate the deep connection that Trico and the boy share with each other. For instance, Trico might forgo his phobia of glass paintings if he sees you being dragged to another realm by the enemies and instantly save you. It doesn’t happen all that too often, but this is part of why it makes those moments so special.

Of course, this being a Fumito Ueda game – his design by subtraction philosophy is in full swing here too. As already mentioned, every aspect of the game serves to strengthen one core design goal that is to explore the relationship of the boy and his gargantuan pet animal, and elements that don’t serve those goals were butchered throughout development. You will not get any special tools throughout your journey so to speak, there is no side content except for optional treats for Trico, no skill trees, and so on. Most of your time spent exploring the vast environments will be coupled with just the ambient sounds of the flowing winds, rustling leaves, and complete silence. It is only in high-intensity or emotionally evocative moments that the game pulls out its fabulous orchestral soundtrack.

The art style is also minimalist in a similar vein, with the entirety of the world seemingly being drawn by watercolors. There’s heavy use of volumetric fog everywhere, which gives a grand sense of scale to these environments. Generous use of bloom also helps in giving the game a pretty vibrant look, which goes very well with the game’s art style too. It all coalesces to give The Last Guardian a pretty distinctive feeling of being lonely in a vast environment, which works very well with the themes it tries to explore.

Of course, The Last Guardian isn’t a perfect game by any means. There are some very obvious flaws with the game. Movement never feels quite right, which can make some late-game challenges an exercise in pain. The controller layout is also different from what most players might be used to. Some textures can stick out on account of their low-resolution, which is a direct result of the game’s turbulent generation-spanning development cycle.

However, in the face of what The Last Guardian does right, these all become minor nuisances by the time you roll the end credits. The Last Guardian is simply put one of the most unique video game experiences of recent memory, and a strong reminder of the fact that video games can also be works of art. What gives it such stature and in turn, makes it one hell of a game are the bold strides it takes to accomplish its design goals, knowing well that they might not jive very well with a decent chunk of its audience. 

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

As the head of Team Ico, Fumito Ueda led the development of some of the best and most iconic PlayStation exclusives of all time in Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. He’s no longer at Sony, but with much of his old team with him at his indie studio genDesign, he’s now at work on his next game, which he says will be as ambitious as his previous efforts.

And though it might be a while before we learn more about what that game is going to be, the studio has offered a brief tease for the same. The developer’s website is displaying a new year’s greeting, with the first three digits in “2021” displaying artwork from Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. Interestingly enough, the final digit shows a sliver of art from Ueda’s next game (which will be genDesign’s debut title), showing a lone figure leaning against a rock and standing in what’s looking like a desolate environment. It’s not much to go on, and really just a sliver of new artwork, but it gives a taste of what fans can look forward to. Take a look below.

In early 2020, it was announced that genDesign had signed a publishing agreement with Epic Games for their game, which will see the latter fully funding the project and the two splitting the profits from the title equally. Read more on that through here.

Epic Games have announced a new initiative via their Epic Games Publishing Label that will be focusing on a “developer-first approach” as they move ahead with partnerships with three studios from around the world for the development of their next games.

One of these is Remedy Entertainment, who announced earlier today that they had entered into an agreement for two unannounced next-gen games that would be set in the same universe, one of which – which is already in pre-production (and could be the live service game they’ve mentioned earlier) and will be a AAA production.

The other two developers are Playdead (the developers of Limbo and Inside), and Japanese studio genDesign, led up by former Sony man and director of Shadow of the Colossus (among others), Fumito Ueda. Ueda’s genDesign was also involved in the development of The Last Guardian, and have been working on what is described as a very ambitious game over the last couple of years- and were looking for a publisher for their title less than a year ago.

“We’re building the publishing model we always wanted for ourselves when we worked with publishers,” said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney.

“gen DESIGN, Remedy, and Playdead are among the most innovative and talented studios in the industry, with strong visions for their next games,” said Hector Sanchez, head of Epic Games Publishing. “They will have full creative control, while Epic will provide a solid foundation of project funding and services”

The deal struck between Epic and the three parties seems like one that the studios in question must be quite happy with. As Remedy confirmed during their aforementioned announcement for earlier today, each of these three studios will receive complete funding for the development of their projects, and will be splitting the net revenues accrued from their titles with a 50/50 split. Finally, each studio will also retain full creative control and will have complete ownership of their IP.

Fumito Ueda, the mastermind behind some of the greatest games in history like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, went independent and started his own studio – genDesign – a while back. Him and his team have been working on a new game for a while now, and according to Ueda, it’s a very ambitious project.

Last we heard of it was late in 2018, when Ueda spoke about why he had chosen to get the production of the game funded by the game fund known as Kowloon Nights (you can read all about it through here). Now, we have a pretty substantial update on where the game is at in its development stage. Speaking with Polygon, Ueda spoke about genDesign’s new game, confirming that it’s out of the prototyping stage of development.

“The extensive prototyping period was worthwhile and we are making very good progress,” he said. “I believe this project will showcase both unexpected and familiar elements in one.” Ueda’s new game, in fact, is now in the stage where it’s being shown to big publishers to partner up with.

We might be a few years out still before we hear or see anything concrete about the game, but it’s possible that we’ll be hearing about a partnership between Ueda and his studio’s new publisher for their next game not long from now. Stay tuned.

Fumito Ueda is best known for his workson games such as Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, and he is leading GenDesign as they work on a new title that is funded by the game fund known as Kowloon Nights. We’ve already heard quite a bit about this game, including about how it wouldn’t have been possible to make it a few years ago, and about how it is quite an ambitious project. Ueda-san has now explained why exactly they’ve chosen to partner with Kowloon Nights for this project.

Speaking to EDGE Magazine (November 2018, Issue 324), Ueda-san explained that working with Kowloon Nights has granted the developers a lot of creative freedom for their next game. He stated, “We’re able to explore the core of our next game with a high degree of freedom. As a game developer, I want to concentrate on the creative aspects and not have to field requests from others about what type of game to make or what genre to pursue. We partnered with Kowloon Nights because they met my strict conditions surrounding creative freedom. Our aim is to create something of a similar scale to our previous titles, and to continue pushing the envelope.”

Kowloon Nights is an investment fund that provides financial assistance to independent game developers. However, GenDesign is still on the lookout for a publisher for their new game. That said, the most pressing concern for the team now is finding the required talent. Ueda-san stated, “One aspect that I’m not satisfied with at the moment is the struggles we have in finding new talent. While we have excellent staff that know how to work with me and help realise the ideas I come up with, we need to fill the ranks of the team. That’s our most immediate need.This creates a difficult climate for GenDesign to recruit top tier talent who want to make great games.”

If you are wondering why GenDesign didn’t just go with crowdfunding, it’s because it didn’t meet their specific needs. Ueda-san explained, “While it works great for some creators, I think the requirement to give backers frequent updates just wouldn’t fit my way of working.” Hopefully, we’ll get to know more about GenDesign’s new game soon enough.

Fumito Ueda, the man behind classics such as Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, has formed his own studio since he moved on from Sony. GenDesign, led by the mastermind designer, is working on its next title, which is being funded by a game fund called Kowloon Nights, and Ueda has spoken in recent weeks about how the game is going to be just as ambitious as his previous games.

And according to Ueda, bringing those ambitions to life is going to be a much easier and smoother process now, thanks to current technologies, than it would have been years ago. While speaking with Edge (November 2018, Issue 324), Ueda talked about his work on his upcoming project. He mentioned that the way he and his team are going about developing the game would not have been possible on titles such as Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian, due to limited technologies.

“In the past, it would take a week or two for an idea in my head to be realized in the game,” Ueda said. “However, now that we have modern tools at our disposal, we can fully realize a new idea in a matter of days or hours. The way we’re building our next game just wasn’t conceivable years ago when we developed The Last Guardian and Shadow of the Colossus.”

Hopefully, that means Ueda and his team will take less time to churn out their new project than they did with The Last Guardian, which had an infamously protracted development cycle. That’s what more efficient tools are supposed to do, at the very least.

Fumito Ueda – the man who led the development of PlayStation classics such as Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian – and his indie studio genDesign are currently working on their next project, Ueda has confirmed. Of course, this is something he’s teased in the past as well, but this comes as a much more concrete introduction (of sorts).

While speaking in an interview with Weekly Famitsu (translated by Gematsu), Ueda confirmed that work on his studio’s next game is currently in a prototyping stage, where they’re testing out ideas to see what sticks, and that it’s being backed by the game fund called Kowloon Nights.

“We’re in a stage of various trials,” Ueda said. “This stage we’re in, where we’re actually making our ideas to test if they’re interesting or not, is being supported by Kowloon Nights, so we’re proceeding with prototyping.”

“We’re working out the core parts first, and from there we’ll make it into a stable product,” he explained. “That’s our challenge this time.”

In spite of being an indie studio, though, Ueda has also confirmed that they’re not holding back in terms of ambition, and that his next game is going to match the likes of Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian in terms of scale. He also confirmed that the game would be a new IP, not a sequel to anything (which is consistent with all the stuff he’s worked on in the past).

“What we’re making now doesn’t feel like an indie game,” Ueda explained. “We’re ultimately aiming for something on the scale of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. If larger-scale development becomes of interest to us, then I think we will significantly expand our development system and take it to a large-scale development team to make it a big game.”

Fumito Ueda and his studio – which largely consists of people he worked with on Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – have done enough great things to warrant our trust by this point, and I personally can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next. genDesign also aided SIE Japan Studio with the development of 2016’s The Last Guardian, which was another incredible game, so all signs point to similarly excellent stuff headed our way in the future.