Ben-DutkaThose following the development saga of The Last Guardian are probably a little – or a lot – concerned.
First, Team ICO boss Fumito Ueda leaves Sony as an employee and continues to work on the project on a contractual basis and second, Sony President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that progress is slow .
And now, in another update, we learn that God of War developer Sony Santa Monica has been enlisted to help out on the project. In speaking to Wired , Yoshida said the Santa Monica team and other members of the Sony family are trying to assist the core design team of The Last Guardian . Said Yoshida:
"It's not just Santa Monica. We have great tech people in Worldwide Studios. We have a central tech group in the US and the UK so we are giving them whatever help they need. Technically, we have the best engineers in the US and Europe, so these teams are helping them, giving advice."
Thus far, besides an extended teaser trailer and some vague details, we know very little about The Last Guardian . So at this point, with the team accepting help, one might assume the end result might not be one of those ingenious cohesive Ueda visions. But the optimist in you should be glad that Sony is willing to do whatever is necessary to make this game happen.
Related Game(s): The Last Guardian
At this point, I'm willing to view this game as a pleasant surprise when/if it happens. Since it'll be a while since it comes anyways, I'll just turn my focus away until then. If it's great, wonderful. If not, well, I have better things to do.
Of course I want it to be great, but I also have no loyalties to this game or Ueda. It's a pensive wait and see for me.
I have to agree… the more talent that is employed for this project, the better.
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
I can't decide which is the King of Vaporware: Rockstar's 'Agent', Square-Enix's 'Final Fantasy Versus XIII' or Sony's 'The Last Guardian'. *sigh*
I want these games. I do. I have 'The Last Guardian' paid for already. But what the hell?! I'm sick of these development times. How about a new rule for 2012? You're not allowed to announce a game UNLESS you have GAMEPLAY to show! Fair enough?
I say Agent is vaporware because we've seen nothing but a logo and couple odd screenshots we think its from the game. Verus XIII and Last Guardian we get tiny progress reports.
I don't think Versus and The Last Guardian technically qualify for vaporware status because both games have shown verifiable progress, however slow it may be. Agent on the other hand is a strong possibility in this regard.
This doesnt really sound like good news to me at all.
I'm definitely glad to see other parties are offering to step in and help, but the fact that's necessary for them to do so spells "code red" for the state of The Last Guardian, I'm afraid. Clearly they are facing some serious design hurdles, and it's far from certain this game is going to deliver at the high level we've all been hoping for for years.
I believe this has already been covered. As I understand it the main reason for the game's long development time is the unusually meticulous approach that the team is taking. Usually numerous things get worked on at the same time however with this game they are doing things one at a time.
This is a good thing
Sony studeios often help 3rd party exclusives it doesn't mean anything bad
Although The Last Guardian isn't a third party exclusive. Team ICO is a part of Sony's Japan studio.
It almost reminds me of an international team of medical experts trying to save a dying patient.
I can only imagine the development costs of this game.
The development costs might not be as big as you think. I remember that during the development process of inFAMOUS the team at Sucker Punch had two options: either ask Sony for additional funds or extend the development time. They chose the latter option.
Long development times don't necessarily mean big costs. Sure LA Noire took a long time to make and supposedly cost a lot of money to make but I think that was more because of Brendan McNamara's apparently questionable financial judgement.
This makes my gamer heart ache. I've wanted this game so badly, for so long.
I see this as a good act of faith on Sony's part. They want to see this game happen and they're willing to throw extra resources at it to make sure it does. But the fact that they need to pull other teams onto the project doesn't bode well.
Lets just hope this is the boost they need to get things back on track.
I would view this as good news.
I seriously doubt that the Santa Monica people are going to have any creative influence on the game. It looks to me like they are just helping out with the technical side of things. And the same goes for the others who are helping. This may very well end up speeding the games progress.
It was ridiculously ambitious from the outset, and I think that getting help from teams that have a proven track record with the PS3 platform, and pushing it to its limits can only be a good thing. But I think we can now rule it out for this year. Makes me a sadface.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this.
On one hand, it usually isn't a good sign when others have to step in.
But on the other hand, I believe that they are willing to show that they're all about the "labor of love" towards games, by stepping up to lend a hand.
And in the long run, I think we'll wind up with a great game.
So as Confucius(or David Carradine)might say…."Extreme patience in such matters, most honorably lead to rewarding future, young grasshopper"
A prime example of why Sony owns 2 Japanese studios and 13 European and North American studios.
I'm sure the Santa Monica studio will do a fine job of completing the game and getting it released, but when the guy who came up with the vision for the whole thing is, I dunno, off smokin' dope somewhere? The end result isn't going to be what anyone wanted.
Actually, Ueda is working as hard as ever on the game despite not being a Sony employee anymore. In fact he's allegedly working harder than anyone else.
Although exactly why anyone would want to abandon AAA game design to start making little internet games does seem to be a good question doesn't it?
Last edited by Looking Glass on 2/22/2012 4:02:53 PM
God of war 3 was badass and it was a technical marvel im confident this will help steer TLG in the right direction. This shows sony does care and is willing to not give up on something it has over M$. Quality exclusives. This is great news.
"slow" would be understatement of the year!
TLG got shown to a BBC presenter in 05, you dont go showing games off to people before youve spent a good few months on the game so that means it probably started development in 04.
that makes it 8 freaking years so far, and we dont even have a single gameplay trailer!
no release date, no nothing!
my god, even DNF had more coverage then this!
im starting to believe man will be walking on pluto before this game releases!
To be fair, Sony Santa Monica does a whole lot more than just God of War:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCE_Santa_Monica_Studio
They are regularly involved in helping with other people's games. The only thing unusual, here, is how incredibly long it's taking Ueda to finish the game. From some of the other stories that have come out, it seems like a lot of time has been wasted by throwing things away and starting from scratch. That's not the most productive way to get things done.
Interesting combo. You have two devs who specialize in entirely different styles and tones yet both also specialize in epic boss battles and sweeping fantasy wherein the slaying of mythical beasts is a core component of gameplay.