Sony has called on a number of western studios to facilitate development of troubled Team ICO behemoth The Last Guardian.
Speaking with Wired, Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, confirmed that God of War creator Sony Santa Monica is among the list of studios who have jumped on board the project.
“It’s not just Santa Monica,” said Yoshida-san. “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.”
The executive went on to note that the ambitious PlayStation 3-exclusive title is in a playable form, though not to the point where Sony can start talking about a release date.
The game was previously touted for a holiday 2011 launch before being shunted into 2012, though even that remains uncertain at this point.
“There’s a vision that we want to realize but it’s very very tough and technical issue that the team is tackling and some plans have to be made to evaluate and go through the process,” he said.
“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,” added Yoshida-san.
Lastly, he once again reiterated that creator Fumito Ueda is still very much involved with the project, following reports of his departure from Team ICO late last year.
“It’s not like he left the making of The Last Guardian. He’s on top of the game and coming into the office,” he said.
“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.”