Sony has a long history of delivering artistic, expressive game experiences, with no better example than Team Ico. Team Ico, the team responsible for the PlayStation 2 hits Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, have been developing their next title for what feels like forever now. The Last Guardian is a game that has been in development since 2007, heralded as the next brilliant work of art from Fumito Ueda, has been vaporware to most fans with constant delays and rumors of cancellations.
There has been a promise from Sony to expect The Last Guardian on the PlayStation 4 and for it to happen soon, but for most of us, that promise felt empty. After years of waiting, longing and pouring over any of the screenshots released over the years, we finally have a concrete date thanks to Sony’s E3 presentation. That day is October 25th, 2016. Yes, The Last Guardian finally has a concrete release date and it looks like this is really, really happening.
While it might sound ridiculous to doubt the release of a game, the development began back in 2007 after the success of Shadow of the Colossus, with it being formally announced in 2009. The game was planned to be released in 2011 for the PlayStation 3, until nothing. Radio silence. The departure of Fumito Ueda and Team Ico left the game seemingly in eternal limbo, but Ueda, along with a few key team members who formed genDESIGN, stuck around as creative consultants and The Last Guardian quietly continued being developed for PS4.
Of course, all of that was expounded by more silence, with many believing that the game would simply never happen. At last year’s E3 Sony surprised the world by announcing that The Last Guardian would indeed get a PlayStation 4 release and that it’d come out in 2016. They didn’t lie. October 25th is the official release date.