'The Last Guardian' creator offers cryptic public announcement

Videogame designer Fumito Ueda created Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, a pair of tragically beautiful PlayStation 2 masterpieces. Ueda has been working on a third game, The Last Guardian, for a long time now. The game has been constantly delayed. In late 2011, Sony just stopped announcing release dates. Word also trickled out that Ueda himself had been fired from Sony, though he remained on the project in a freelance capacity. Little was known about the status of the game: What initially seemed like the Apocalypse Now of videogames began to look like vaporware.

Well, Ueda has made a rare public announcement about the project over at his blog. He explains that Guardian remains “under my creative supervision and is still in development.” However, the announcement is curiously constructed: He notes that the game’s release “is solely decided by Sony” and tells his readers to “please keep an eye out for their official announcement.” Does this mean that there is an official announcement pending? Could this indicate that Guardian will skip a generation and appear on Sony’s rumored Playstation 4? Or is this his way of saying, basically, “You know as much as I do”? There is a disturbing amount of talk about Ueda pursuing “new creative projects,” which sounds an awful lot like “I’m not working on The Last Guardian anymore.”

Then again, the Japanese videogame industry is famously secretive — even moreso than the American videogame industry. So this might actually be the rough equivalent of “Pulling a Dan Harmon.” Read the full text of Ueda’s statement below, and ponder:

To All Interested Parties:

As some of you may have heard, I left Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Studio some time ago to pursue my creative passions. Nevertheless, I continue working on THE LAST GUARDIAN as a freelance contributor.

While it’s been a long time coming, THE LAST GUARDIAN remains under my creative supervision and is still in development by an incredibly talented team.

I should also mention that details regarding THE LAST GUARDIAN’s release is solely decided by Sony Computer Entertainment, not myself. Please keep an eye out for their official announcement.

Moving forward, it is my intent to continue my involvement with THE LAST GUARDIAN project, as well as pursue new creative projects with a fresh perspective. As I rekindle my passions as a creator, I look forward to seeing where it will take me, and I deeply appreciate your support during this transition.

Fumito Ueda

And now, just for the heck of it, here’s one of the greatest sequences in the history of the videogame medium:

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