Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, says that the developers of The Last Guardian, Team Ico, are making progress, but very slowly and gradually. He attributed to the challenges of meeting the vision Fumito Ueda had in mind for The Last Guardian.
“The project has been making progress, but slow progress,” Yoshida told 1UP. “So that’s tough, but we haven’t changed any focus. It’s still a really important project and a vision we want to see realised, and Fumito’s vision is really causing a very difficult challenge for the developers, so there’s some scrapping and rebuilding – iteration in the process. That’s why [it’s taking so long].”
Yoshida also reaffirmed fans that Fumito Ueda, father of Team Ico, is still working hard on The Last Guardian, even though he left Sony last year. “You know, we discussed an arrangement so he could focus on the creative side,” said Yoshida.
“But his work and his presence on that team never changed, so it was just more a contractual rearrangement, and that was taken [by many] as ‘he left’.
“He comes in every day, and he’s probably one of the people who works the longest hours.”
The Last Guardian is slated for a release this year, but given the current situation, I don’t think that’s gonna happen.