Grave Gamer News & Views — retraction

theredherb:

The Last Guardian Reportedly Cancelled

If you’ve had the privilege of being absorbed in the artistic triumphs that were Ico and its follow-up, Shadow of the Colossus, you’ve also probably been closely watching the troubled development of Team ICO’s The Last Guardian with bated breath.

So this one’s gonna hurt. IGN reports via trusted sources that we won’t see Last Guardian at E3 next week because we won’t ever see it again.

“The Last Guardian is finally cancelled.”

Our only glimmer of hope is that Sony themselves have yet to put the official kabosh on the project, but this beauty has been circling the drain for some time. Initial concerns over the game’s progress began when it missed its projected 2011 release date for the PS3 despite a reveal dating back to E3 2009.

The worry train gained serious momentum when exectutive producer Yoshifusa Hayama exited the project, then damn near derailed with Team ICO founder Fumito Ueda’s departure from the studio. Things seemed to piece together again with Sony’s quarterly assurances that Guardian was still in the pipeline and Ueda’s promise to not sever his production involvement entirely. Hell, most figured the extended wait on the game was due in part to the dev team converting the game for the PlayStation 4 (much like the eons-in-development Final Fantasy Versus XIII’s hop to next-gen).

I’ll keep my ears open for an official announcement, but it really does appear The Last Guardian’s stay of execution has come to an end.

UPDATE!!!!

IGN has now posted an article stating that this initial report was made in error and that its sources are no longer credible. The site updated with an apology to Sony and its readers. “To Sony and Team ICO, who have had to address unexpected controversy on the eve of the year’s largest celebration of gaming, I apologize,” wrote editor Steve Butts, taking the blame for posting the erroneous news solely.

No word if The Last Guardian will make it to LA tomorrow for E3 — it’d be a helluva pleasant surprise if so — but the good news here is that the game is not dead. On point journalism may be, and I’m certainly feeling red-assed embarrassment for perpetuating false news, but Guardian lives.