The completion of the Last Guardians development cycle, which has given it its legendary status, is somewhat of a miracle. What originally began as a simple project ended up as one of the most anticipated games ever, no doubt partially a result of the wait. However, while development has been extended, most creative work was done years ago and the developers waited for more powerful hardware. For a trip down old memory lane, here's a timeline of the project:
2007
Team Ico starts working on Project Trico.
2008
Team Ico shares the first teaser image, states it is heading to PS3.
Fumito Ueda says the new project has a long way to go before finishing development.
NeoGAF user Jonsoncao shares world's first info on the new project, no one believes him, gets banned.
2009
Fumito Ueda says the essence of the new project will be similar to Ico.
PlayStation LifeStyle leaks first footage from Project Trico (very early version).
Sony officially announces the project's real name The Last Guardian with the game's first trailer. No release date yet.
Game shows up at TGS 2009 with a behind-the-scenes footage and a new trailer.
2010
TLG skips E3, but appears at TGS 2010 with a new trailer and a promise for a Holiday 2011 release.
2011
Game gets delayed from Holiday 2011 without a new date.
TLG skips E3 and TGS.
Reports surface that Fumito Ueda leaves Sony and becomes an independent freelancer, still working on the project.
Sony confirms Ueda's departure but assures that he will complete the game.
2012
The Last Guardian disappears.
Shuhei Yoshida states TLG is making "progress, but slow progress," and it's "tough," but "it's still a really important project" so "there's some scrapping and rebuilding - iteration in the process"
(We later learn that the development shifted to PS4 in 2012.)
2013
Trico is hiding for yet another year.
Fumito Ueda states that he is "terribly sorry" it has taken so long to finish The Last Guardian, and that "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."
2014
This was the hardest year for Team Ico fans.
IGN starts a rumour that TLG has been cancelled in an internal meeting the prior week, cites Sony Russia exec. as the source, Scott Rhode + Yoshida "laughed at this rumor over dinner" and reiterated on Twitter "TLG has NOT been cancelled."
Shuhei Yoshida: "It exists. The team is working hard on it. When we cancel a title and it is something we have announced already, we'll say so."
TLG Support Group formed on NeoGAF.
Y2Kev says The Last Guardian is dead and you will deal.
2015
Finally.
Sony re-announced The Last Guardian at E3 2015 with brand new gameplay, states the game will launch in 2016. Fans cry.
Shuhei Yoshida told Kotaku that development of The Last Guardian was changed from the PlayStation®3 to the PlayStation®4 because "the announcement trailer of 2009 wasn't representative of how the game actually performed - but was "specced up" for the occasion". In reality, "the game was running on a much lower frame rate". "It was clear that the team had to make a compromise in terms of features, as the PlayStation®3 hardware struggled to cope with the game's vision".
2016
Game finally gets a release date at E3 2016 with a new trailer - October 25th 2016.
In September, TLG gets its final delay to December 6th 2016.
Sony releases two new trailers in November - Action Gameplay Trailer and CG Cinematic Trailer/Ad.
Launch Trailer.
Review Thread | Spoiler Thread
