7 Video Games That Survived Development Hell (And How)

7. The Last Guardian

Following the cult status achieved by Fumito Ueda’s Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, gamers eagerly anticipated news of what the beloved Japanese game developer was going to come up with next.

In 2009, The Last Guardian was officially unveiled as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. The following year at the Tokyo Game Show, a release window was announced, telling gamers to expect the game in time for the holidays in 2011.

Early in 2011, though, the game was delayed.

Development was slow and Sony weren’t happy the game’s serious performance issues on PlayStation 3. They brought in outside teams (from the likes of God of War devs Santa Monica Studios) to try and help out but, in 2012, the decision was made to move the game onto PlayStation 4 in order to fully realise Ueda’s vision. On PS4, performance greatly improved, and it was now up to the remaining developers to finish the project.

Slowing things down further was the fact that in December 2011, Ueda left Sony due to feeling “a sense of crisis within myself about a lot of things” and a number of his team followed suit. Together they formed a new studio, GenDESIGN, and were contracted to work in partnership with Japan Studio to finish The Last Guardian.

After a re-reveal in 2015 and one more delay (of course), The Last Guardian finally launched in December 2016 to a mixed, though mostly warm, critical reception.