The Last Guardian creator Fumito Ueda leaves Sony - rumour

EG: "Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian creator Fumito Ueda has left Sony, Eurogamer understands. Japanese video game development sources indicated the 41-year-old is working on finishing oft-delayed PlayStation 3 exclusive The Last Guardian in a freelance capacity."

[LOGICWINS]

WOW..nice find.

[Dante112]

I know this is a rumor, but I really hope he didn't leave. The video game industry is already stagnant enough with all of these shooter games.

[theonlylolking]

You are only paying attention to the shooter games. If you search around you will see that there are tons of games that are innovative and are not shooters.

[crxss]

Ueda's 41?? ಠ_ಠ

he's still going to make games and that's all that matters right?

[gaffyh]

HUGE loss for the team if true. I can't see him leaving for no reason, there must be something else going on. I mean, Sony gave him a big chance with Ico and SOTC, I don't see him giving up on that.

[RememberThe357]

gaffyh: I was thinking the same thing. Sony is the reason anyone knows who this guy even is. They gave him a chance when no one else would have. They may have made the choice for him though. His game take forever to release and this project has probably taken longer to produce and coasted more money then Sony has originally intended. As business men as well as "creative facilitators" (I like that lol) they have to be torn on what to do about it. Maybe it's best this way. We'll just have to wait and see.

[nveenio]

I wonder what the source for this is.

[zeddy]

i think he's had a knock on the door from microsoft.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Yes there is lots of fps out there, but if you actually look carefully enough you'll also notice quite a few other types of games, more so if you have a ps3 due to its exclusives. I personally have yet to play any of this guys games so it won't really effect me one bit.

[Laypoof]

The day Fumito Ueda leaves Team Ico is the day I quit gaming.

[TOO PAWNED]

liar you won't quit so stop writing bs

[Majin-vegeta]

Yea man hopefully not he has made two of the best story driven art game's i have ever played.

[Papertiger]

Maybe for you perhaps and your "kind" this seems nice logicwins, but NOTHING about this is in any way shape or form nice. Fumitio Ueda is one of a handful of creative game genius's in a gaming world filled with generic FPS garbage.

[N4g_null]

Sweet maybe he can team up with other creative developers and go multiplform!

[Optical_Matrix]

It's strange, I can't imagine him leaving at the most crucial point in his own projects development. It just seems so strange for Ueda, who is so passionate about his games to do something like that. Especially when its his most ambitious yet. I don't know what to say :/

[Dante112]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Ueda doesn't seem like the type to just quit on his projects or leave it to other people. Almost like Kazunori Yamauchi in a way where his games take extra time to develop because he wants his game to be perfect in his eyes.

Edit: Kinda surprised that no one has hit his twitter yet lol

[TVippy]

It's far from the most crucial - it's a QA stage.

[-Alpha]

I agree, I am shocked and so saddened to hear it, I don't see how Team ICO can do without him and hope that his "Freelance" position doesn't mean "Don't care about the direction of the game"

[PshycoNinja]

NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

*mind explodes*

[nondecaf]

I think this is more fitting.

[Krew_92]

ROFL. That face.

[MizTv]

sad

[chiwoo]

Lets just hope this is not true i am a huge fan of his games.

[tiffac008]

It better be a rumor because Team Ico won't be the same without Ueda. :(

[WildStyles]

Damn, we'll be lucky to even see this game at this point if this is true. Hopefully the other folks at Team Ico rebound after this loss.

[NeoBasch]

I doubt this so much. Ueda and Sony have like a love relationship going on. Sony personally green lit all of his projects (ever since ICO's prototype on PSOne) and treats him like management. Hell, they let all of his college buddies form a small group in a recess of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan's studio. There's approximately 50 members that are a part of the team, and he treats them like family. Seriously, he doesn't even outsource any aspect of his games to other developers as other studios do here in America. He wants everything under close watch. There's no way this is true.

[Kur0]

I think they might be misinterpreting things, Ueda might just want independence for Team ICO. He could just want the studio to be its own thing and separate from SONY Japan.

[DigitalAnalog]

This actually gave my heart a jump. Last thing I want to hear is that this game would make it to vapourware status.

[Hicken]

I'm gonna say this is, mostly likely, just a rumor. I honestly can't see Ueda leaving, especially when The Last Guardian isn't finished yet. That doesn't even make sense.

[nyobzoo]

as long as he finishes The Last Guardian first, he can do whatever he wants after

[TVippy]

As some guy said on EG - he won't find any company that will allow him to develop his games for decades.

[majiebeast]

Exactly can you see it activision ea or capcom taking on projects like sotc,ico and tlg i cant.

[Godmars290]

On the other hand, MS is probably waiting in the wings with a truckload of cash just to get him to do an exclusive.

[gnb2003]

That's an interesting point. Although I am sure there are some companies that would be just as open as Sony was for Ueda.

Nintendo springs to mind.

[damnyouretall]

fuck man this is a huge downer. i finally got to play his games just a few weeks ago, amazing. what will happen to tlg? just the thought makes me die a lil inside.

[user858621]

Ouch lulzz

[Ethereal]

I call BS! No way he would leave......

[wildcat]

"Following the completion of the game, Ueda will embark on personal projects."

[demonddel]

Good Microsoft get em

[Majin-vegeta]

Lol i think he knows what M$ are capable of and i doubt he would want his studio to end up like yea...

[Dogswithguns]

Hopes he still make games..

[zerocrossing]

Sucks if true :( Ico & SOTC are awesome games and Ive been looking forward to seeing more of the Last Guardian.

[PirateThom]

Again, I have trouble believing this... he's in a position now where he can pretty much do what he wants without fear of losing funding, would he really throw that away? Team ICO games don't sell amazingly well, but they fill a neiche market and, honestly, it's hard for me to imagine too many publishers giving him 4 years to only sell 1million units. It could be that he wants to move away from gaming, which is a different matter... but to go from pretty free reign to looking for a publisher, starting from scratch? Definitely odd. Unless it's a similar situation to the one Lightbox and Eat Sleep Play have where they basically form a studio under a new name, published by Sony, but still third party. If that's the case, it's going to be Team ICO with a different name...

[dead_eye]

This is the most likely thing if it is true. Sony do give a lot of freedom to developers and I can't see him giving that up

[SuperNerd]

Damn

[NeloAnjelo]

Probably one of the most innovative minds in gaming. Sad news if true.

[listenkids]

Weird rumour

[maniacmayhem]

If true, it's probably due to either wanting to head his own studio or something internal between him and Sony.

We just have to wait and see.

[ZippyZapper]

He popbably wants to make multiplatform games if this is true.

[leahcim]

now we can expect the new "multiplatform Last Guardian" !

[BABY-JEDI]

I find this very bizarre. Maybe Sony are fed-up with deadline after deadline being missed? Maybe he's being too much of a perfectionist.
4yrs+ is a hell of a lot of time & money... Hope this is not the case.