I probably don’t need to tell you about The Last Guardian. Originally revealed in 2009 by designer and director Fumito Ueda, who is responsible for the acclaimed titles Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, the game has since been delayed numerous times and has even seen Ueda leave Sony though he remains on the project as a consultant. So what’s the latest on the project? According to Sony, in short, ‘its alive,’ but if true, why?

According to PlayStation’s Scott Rohde, Software Product Development Head for Sony Worldwide Studios America:

 So, we’re not talking about when The Last Guardian is coming out, but it is still a game that there’s a lot of love for inside PlayStation walls, because everybody sees how emotionally driven that the entire fan base of PlayStation always responds with when we talk about The Last Guardian. That’s something that’s very important to all of us, but we’re not announcing any details on it. 

Previous to Rohde’s comments, Sony America CEO Jack Tretton was quoted at saying the game was on “hiatus.” Soon after, Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida countered Tretton and went to say that the game is “in active development.”

As things stand, the latest official announcement has come from Scott Rohde who put it as:

 It is alive. 

This of course begs the question of “Why?” Many developers have been on record about how expensive game development is this generation and with a title that’s been in development for 5 years, there is simply no way that Sony will recoup its costs. With the PS2 having sold far more units than the PS3 and JRPG being far more dominant at the time, Ico only managed to sell 470,000 units worldwide while Shadow of the Colossus came in at a better 1.14 million. Both games would eventually be remastered in HD for the PS3 as a bundle and sell 950,000 copies.

So this brings us back to The Last Guardian still being in development. Some rumors have even pegged the game as a PS4 title which can only raise development costs further as PS3 titles cannot be ported to the PS4. While conceptual work is still valid, the game would have to be rebuilt again for the PS4.

While the previous two games have been highly anticipated, at this point, we have no idea if the 3rd in the loosely related chapter will be a masterpiece or a dud. And even if the title is a hit, if the series is any indication, the title sales, even if tripled, do not support the game’s extremely high development cost at this point. At some point, while an artistic commitment is cheered, a business decision must be made and I believe The Last Guardian has reached that point.

Discuss:

Is it time for Sony to pull the plug on The Last Guardian?

[Via Joystiq]