Sony Pulls in Western Studios to Aid The Last Guardian

The Last Guardian’s troubled development is well documented. But Sony’s made some bold decisions in order to help get the game back on track.

According to reports spilling out of Wired, Sony has assigned a number of its first-party studios to the project in the hope of alleviating “a very tough and technical issue” which is plaguing the game’s development.

Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida said:

It’s not just Santa Monica. We have great tech people in Worldwide Studios. We have a central tech group in the US and the UK so we are giving them whatever help they need.

Technically, we have the best engineers in the U.S. and Europe, so these teams are helping them, giving advice.

According to Yoshida, the title is making progress, but another major revision has set development back once again.

He continued:

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.

As for Ueda himself, he’s still on board according to Yoshida:

It’s not like he left the making of The Last Guardian. He’s on top of the game and coming into the office.

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. He never left the team, he’s on top of the game.

It’s always nice to get a development report about The Last Guardian – even if the news is rarely positive. Still, we’re pleased to see studios like Santa Monica being brought on board to help out. Hopefully the game will start to make some serious progress now.