Sony has announced that the upcoming HD remakes of classic titles Ico and Shadow of the Colossus for PlayStation 3 have been delayed, and will not be released this spring as originally stated.
The company also revealed that The Last Guardian, Team Ico's latest project, will also miss its winter release date.
In a post on the EU PlayStation blog, The Last Guardian director Fumito Ueda explained, "I announced at last year’s Tokyo Game Show that the release timing of The Last Guardian which is currently being developed would be holiday 2011."
"However, to provide more challenging and better quality of content to users and to fulfill First Party Studio’s obligations, I decided to postpone its release timing. All the members of my production team are working together at a fast pace to develop and release the game in First Party Studio quality."
He concluded, "I sincerely apologize to all the customers who have been waiting for The Last Guardian for so long, but I beg for your patience."
Phil Lynch, European product manager at SCEE, noted, "SCEE can confirm that we are officially delaying the release of ICO/Shadow of the Colossus Collection and The Last Guardian from their respective launch timeframes of Spring 2011 and Holiday/Winter 2011."
He explained that details regarding new release dates will be released "at a later date".
I hope the extra time is well spent, but does a game really need all that extra time? For instance, if you could get a half finished version of The Last Guardian Tomorrow, would you pay 1/2 retail price for it? I'm thinking Twisted Metal is also a good exampl because its design philosophy is so well balanced and even a beta version could be a blast.
The delay was most likely motivated by SONY already having a very solid battery of holiday releases for 2011, so it would have been strategic to move one of the big hitters over to give life to a slower quarter in 2012.
Neither Ico nor Shadow of the Colossus were big hitters (sales wise). Maybe that is why they moved Last Guardian to give it more visibility in the market? They could also have moved it because they don't have enough time to finish the game / fix all the bugs in time for a July / August submission required for a holiday 2011 release. In any case my response is: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I agree, given this winter's lineup, Shadow of the Colossus ran the risk of being completely buried. An early 2012 release would be much more likely to generate consumer buzz. I'm glad they're taking their time with this one - nice to see a project that isn't completely at the whim of deadlines.
Its one thing to delay their game, but why be so nebulous about it. It seems like this is a habbit with Japanese game designers in particular. A western studio with a AAA game up their sleeve, save maybe Blizzard, would never set a release date, and then just say that they're "pushing it back." They should be able to commit to January or February or something. Hopefully this isn't indicative of larger problems with the game's design.
I am ALL FOR giving the time to get this one right. If they can pull of the magic from the last two in this I will be very surprised and have a lot of hope for the future of the artform.
