The head of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCEE WWS) has explained that the PlayStation 4 has made a huge difference to development of The Last Guardian, with the ambitious Team ICO project suffering from multiple ‘technical issues’ on PS3.
Speaking with Kotaku, Shuhei Yoshida explained that the original E3 2009 demo of the game benefitted from some smoke and mirrors due to various issues running on PS3 hardware.
“There were lots of technical issues”, said Yoshida-san. “The video we showed, the trailer on PS3, was specced up. The game was running at a much lower frame rate… it was clear that the team had to make a compromise.”
The executive went on to say that development continued on PS3 with various problems until 2012, when the project shifted to Sony’s current-generation console. It was from this point that The Last Guardian was finally able to make some progress, and is now "totally playable" on PS4, Yoshida-san added.
Sony debuted new footage of The Last Guardian during its E3 2015 press conference Tuesday evening. Check out the box art here and have a butcher’s at some beautiful new screenshots while you’re at it.
The game will finally be released in 2016.