In an interview with 1Up, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida stated that while developer Fumito Ueda was no longer with Sony, but working as a contractor, he still comes in every day to the office. ”We discussed an arrangement so he could focus on the creative side,” related Yoshida, ”But his work and his presence on that team never changed, so it was just more a contractual rearrangement, and that was taken as ‘he left’.”
When pressed on the logical extension of that news, if Ueda wanted to avoid the business side of Sony by remaining purely on the creative side, Yoshida evaded, ”It’s a personal matter, so I can’t really say,” then added cryptically, ”If this project goes well – you know, fingers crossed – we’ve worked with him for a long time so yeah I certainly hope we can maintain a relationship.”
As for the development of the game itself, Yosida revealed, ”The project has been making progress, but slow progress. So that’s tough, but we haven’t changed any focus. It’s still a really important project and a vision we want to see realized, and Fumito’s vision is really causing a very difficult challenge for the developers, so there’s some scrapping and rebuilding – iteration in the process. That’s why (it’s taking so long).”
The Last Guardian is scheduled for release on the PlayStation 3, but the game lacks any official release date.
