Ueda: I feel terribly sorry I have kept my audience waiting
"My creative work was mostly finished a long time ago," says designer of The Last Guardian
Fumito Ueda, former SCE Japan Studio employee and the designer behind Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus, has spoken about his sorrow about his last and still unreleased title, The Last Guardian.
"Putting aside the short-term output, more than anything I feel terribly sorry that for various reasons I have kept my audience waiting for such a long time," he told Edge.
">"The details of when, where and how The Last Guardian will be completed are beyond my control"
Maintaining motivation is all about producing something great. A hobby or alcohol might help to refresh you temporarily, but they won't motivate creativity. Also, the original staff members on Ico and Shadows Of The Colossus are just as fussy over details as I am. I always want to create quickly, and I always want to increase the rate of production. In the case of The Last Guardian, my creative work was mostly finished a long time ago, but the details of when, where and how it will be completed are beyond my control.
The interview reveals that Ueda is contractually obliged not to talk about the Sony game, which was announced in 2009 but is still missing in action, with Sony unwilling or unable to confirm either a release date or a cancellation.
He also spoke about going freelance, and hinted there was more to the story than he will able to currently discuss.
"It's difficult to explain, but in a nutshell it was because I felt a sense of crisis within myself about a lot of things. It's hard to [say exactly what], but in terms of my own growth and career and so on," he explained.
"It was not easy, but I can't go into the details just yet. It will be good to be able to discuss it along with a post-mortem of The Last Guardian someday."