Sony delayed once again its upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive title The Last Guardian today. SIE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida said via post in the PlayStation blog that the game’s development team decided to push back the launch date to December 6.
According to the statement, they chose to postpone the release of The Last Guardian a few weeks. Game director Fumito Ueda as well as developers SIE Japan Studio and genDESIGN want to give fans the most polished experience possible.
Yoshida disclosed they had encountered more bugs than expected in the final stages of development. He said it’s a difficult decision, particularly with this game which has been in development since 2007, but that they need extra time to work on those problems.
Yoshida thanked fans who have supported them for so long and stated they want to pay their patience by ensuring that The Last Guardian delivers on the experience that the game’s creators have envisioned.
The game is a spiritual successor to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus
Designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, The Last Guardian shares stylistic, thematic, and gameplay elements with his previous PlayStation 2 exclusive titles Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. The single-player game features third-person perspective and combines the action-adventure and puzzle genres.
Players control a young boy who has been kidnapped by guards and taken to a castle. There, the boy manages to escape and finds a giant creature called Trico. Initially hostile to the boy, the two begin to develop a friendship while trying to evade guards and escape from the castle together.
In Shadow of the Colossus, considered as one of the greatest video games of all time, a young man must travel across a forbidden land to restore the life of a girl.
The Last Guardian has been nine years in the making
Fumito Ueda considered development for Ico and Shadow of the Colossus took too much time, and sought to create something good in a short period. In the making since 2007 by Team Ico, The Last Guardian got showcased during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009.
Originally planned for release in 2011 exclusively for the PlayStation 3, but Ueda and other Team Ico members departed Sony after the company decided to delay The Last Guardian. However, Ueda and his new studio genDESIGN, composed of several former Team Ico members, remained as creative consultants.
More delays, as well as hardware difficulties, forced the team to transition the game to the PlayStation 4 in 2012. Ueda also continued as director, while SIE Japan Studio handled the programming and technical aspects. Reintroduced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, The Last Guardian is now expected to hit stores on December 6, instead of October 25.
Source: PlayStation.Blog
