For those of you feeling apprehensive about Team Ico’s next and often-delayed project The Last Guardian, you can now sleep just a little easier. In an interview with Wired, Sony Senior Vice President Shuhei Yoshida provided a few details about the development process behind Team Ico’s highly anticipated game.

Yoshida divulged to Wired that members of Sony Santa Monica, among others such as Worldwide Studios, have gone to Japan to help Team Ico on the completion of The Last Guardian. Sony Santa Monica is most famously responsible for developing the God of War franchise as well as collaborating with other studios on various Sony exclusives such as the Pixeljunk series and most recently Twisted Metal. No details were provided on what exactly Sony Santa Monica members would be doing to aid in the development of the game.

Late last year, Sony also confirmed rumors that lead creative director (and the man behind cult classics like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus) Fumito Ueda had left the company. Most people had assumed that Ueda would not be staying on to finish The Last Guardian; however, Yoshida confirmed in the interview that Ueda would be staying on to finish the project.

 “There was a rumor that [creative director Fumito] Ueda had left the company, which we confirmed. But its not like he left the making of The Last Guardian. He’s on top of the game and coming into the office. He could be the person who’s in the office for the longest time. The difference is that he used to be a regular employee. But now we have a contract to define his role. It’s a very special contribution and role that he plays and we agreed; let’s make it more official, more special. That’s the only difference.” 

Yoshida goes on to mention that while progress on the game is being made and that it is currently playable, The Last Guardian is still far enough from the finish that a launch date can’t be discussed.

 “But the progress is slow and sometimes the team has to go back and review things. There’s a vision that we want to realize but it’s very, very tough and technical issue that the team is tackling and some plans have to be made to evaluate and go through the process. At one point the progress was great, so we talked about the timing of the launch in the past. But now it’s making progress, but still not to the level — it’s playable, but not to the point that we can talk about the timing of launch.” 

With Ueda still on the project and help from outside agencies like Sony Santa Monica, The Last Guardian is still looking like one of the most anticipated Playstation 3 titles; however, whether or not the game releases this year still remains to be seen.

Check out the entire interview with Yoshida over on Wired.

[Via Wired]

Discuss:

Has the controversy surrounding The Last Guardian damaged its reputation? Are you looking forward to its release or Ueda’s supposed departure dampened your excitement?