The Last Guardian Developer Appears To Be Teasing Its Next Project
Twitter user @Nibellion spotted and shared what is likely to be the first visual look at the next project from genDESIGN, the studio led by Fumito Ueda that released The Last Guardian in 2016. The visual makes up part a New Year's card of sorts that currently greets visitors to the studio's official website. Featured on the New Year's greeting are the four numbers in 2021, each with a different Ueda-created game within its body. Both 2s and the 0 feature the three existing titles directed by Ueda in chronological order, while the 1 at the end of the sequence contains a zoomed-out view of an unidentifiable humanoid character, according to Game Rant. Following the established pattern, this last image should be from the company's next title.
The path to The Last Guardian's release was anything but straightforward and even involves the creation of genDESIGN as an independent studio distinct from Team Ico, which Ueda led during the development of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.
Team Ico was originally tasked with developing The Last Guardian back in 2007, and a preview of the game, when it was still a Team Ico project, was showcased at E3 in 2009 (though it was leaked online in advance of the convention). Its development, however, was hindered both by the decision to release it on the PS4 instead of the PS3 and the dissolution of Team Ico, which was the implicit result of Ueda and some fellow team members' departure from Sony.
When Ueda and much of the team that worked on Ico and Shadow of the Colossus founded genDESIGN, finishing The Last Guardian was most likely not a part of their plans. However, Sony reported continued fan interest in the game, which led them to reach out to genDESIGN to finish the title on a contractual basis. The Last Guardian was ultimately one of the most underrated games of the 2010s.
The history showcased in genDESIGN's New Year's card, then, is not the of the company but the history of Ueda as a lead game developer.
Since all currently available information about genDESIGN's upcoming title is the largely uninformative teaser image and the fact that it will release on the Epic Game Store, it's unknown whether or not its plot will relate to prior Ueda games. Some fans of Shadow of the Colossus theorize that its similarities to Ico extend beyond its aesthetics and point to a shared universe. The character in genDESIGN's new teaser image resembles those of Ueda's previous titles in look but, as has been the case for each prior release, could still be an entirely new protagonist — not that this should temper anybody's excitement.