Ever since its announcement on E3 last 2009, Sony's highly anticipated follow-up to "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" is still in the agonizing developmental stage. The game entitled "The Last Guardian" is being developed by Team Ico and will be distributed by Sony Computer Entertainment. Fumito Uedo, the designer and director of "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" is also head of the games' creative design team.
Development of the game started 2007 and was formally announced at the 2009 Electronic, Entertainment Expo. The team planned its official release around 2011 and will be exclusively distributed to the PlayStation 3 console only. Eight long years have passed after the initiall development of the game but up until now, Team Ico has only produced a couple of trailer and gameplay videos which was posted on various video sharing websites like YouTube.
Based on the officially released trailers and gameplay videos, "The Last Guardian" shows a visually stunning presentation. Extreme details have been put on not only to the characters but also to the environment which presents a beautifully rendered landscape.
On last weekend's PlayStation Experience, Fumito Ueda who is the games director and designer said that the game is still in development stage and is heading to "completely new conditions." No exact detail has been issued about what Ueda meant when he said "new conditions" but rumor has it that he might be referring to "The Last Guardians" switch from the PlayStation 3 platform to Sony's new flagship console, the PlayStation 4. It is important to note that when "The Last Guardian" was officially announced it was supposed to be released in the PlayStation 3 platform.
Hopes and expectations are high since "The Last Guardian" needs to fill the void that its two predecessors have left. What is important right now is that despite the extreme delay, Sony is still committed to the project even if it is already taking too much time in development. Sony has promised its fans that "The Last Guardian" will be worth the wait.