Sony Confirms Ueda's Departure From Team Ico News

Sony has confirmed that the Director and Lead Designer of Team Ico's long-delayed and eagerly anticipated game The Last Guardian, Fumito Ueda has left the company and will now complete the project's development on a contract basis.

Gamasutra is reporting the official news from a Sony statement which assures fans that Ueda-san is "committed to completing" the game, which the company hasn't publicly displayed since the 2010 Tokyo Game Show over a year ago.

A trailer was revealed at that time and a 2011 release window had been tentatively placed on the title, although Sony has been relatively quiet about the project since with a lack of new screens or trailers – a lone four-page feature in Japanese mag, Famitsu is the only thing to have broken this radio silence.

Further doubt was cast on the game's development last week after its Executive Producer, Yoshifusa Hayama departed Sony to join Newscorp's start-up social game studio, Bossa. The real question surrounding Team Ico's future, however, is whether it will remain open after The Last Guardian is released.

The studio's previous titles, Shadow of the Colossus and Ico, are two of the most critically revered games of the last decade, but they're also intrinsically tied to Ueda-san's renowned artistic vision – a Team Ico game without his input may well end up lacking the studio's identity.

We'll have to wait and see whether Sony can develop the talent to maintain Team Ico in Ueda-san's wake, or indeed whether it decides to shut the studio down altogether after The Last Guardian's completion.