The Last Guardian: Ueda "terribly sorry" for delay, launch time-frame out of his control

The Last Guardian director Fumito Ueda may have left Sony, but he still feels sorry for keeping fans waiting for his follow-up to Shadow of the Colossus for so long. He says the timing of its eventual release is now out of his hands.

Speaking with Edge, Ueda was asked to reflect on his past eight years as a creator. he replied, "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 touched on how he remained motivated, and added, "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 SOTC 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."

Ueda is still working on the game in some capacity, but is now a freelancer. He was asked to comment on how Sony took the news that he was leaving his in-house role at the company. "It was not easy," he recalled, "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."

He hinted that he is working on other "secret" projects at present, but couldn't divulge anything further.

The Last Guardian was formally announced in 2009.