I think how much it suffers, if it suffers at all, depends on how close to completion the game is. If all the creative work is done, then it shouldn't have that much of an impact. I'm guessing the framework has been done for some time, from things said and shown in the past, so I'm optimistic that they're down to finer details now. Still complex stuff, I'm sure, but most of the direction has likely been established.

*sigh* Sad, sad day. He's such an amazing developer. I'm starting to worry about this game now. He'll still continue working on development but with the amount of people jumping ship, I fear for its quality and vaporware status. I guess now we'll never see that first-person game he spoke off once. Shame.

May he enjoy his pet projects.

I bet it has a lot to do with how long this is taking to come out. The development cycle on this is almost getting dragged out into GT5 territory and the sales of this won't come close to that to make back some of that money and I don't think they can re-use the assets for it like GT5 either.

Japanese development cycles for certain studios (mostly Sony and Square-Enix it seems) are kind of getting out of control and this might be what needs to be done to get things rolling for these companies.

"Who leaves in the middle of a major project"

Someone who realizes that the project they are working on sucks balls and the work environment has become awful and non-productive.

Happens everyday in jobs across the world.

Contractors usually get paid hourly, where salary works are screwed when working overtime. This might actually be more beneficial for the man. He didn't quit the project.

This game will not suffer from this, I'm 100 percent sure about that. It's the last game in his trilogy, so he'll finish it: it's important for him as an artist.
NOUGHFF SAYDEH.

*to

This game was announced really long ago. The chances of this game finishing are dwindling.

My guess is Ueda and company are trying to make as perfect a game as possible, and Sony is trying to cut corners and force them to finish it ASAP so they can release the damn thing and make some money. Ahh, the eternal struggle between the creative and accounting department continues.

Still hope the reason is because he wants his games to go multiplatform. The world at large is missing out on his genius when the only consoles they can be played on are Sony's. (Not knocking Sony, just more of a statement for the betterment of Gamer Kind)

@mix nailed it on the head.

you know hes leaving to make social games like a good trend follower. sucks to see these creative minds giving in to stupid trends that will make them look stupid.
Keita Takahashi comes to mind.

DUde needs to move to company that apretiates talent SERIOSLY

Maybe sony wanted to cancel the project and he left so sony will not have to pay out that much more money to him. Or maybe, and more possiblily he is just tierd of corporate work and will now go freelance or start a company where there will be no creative restrictions on him. Either ways he is one of my favirte devs and i whish him well.

@Tony
Didn't Capcom also deny his request to work on the game with a contract? Ueda as confirmed by Sony(and I believe himself) is still working on the game but though contract work. Not really the same thing.

I think the game will be alright. He's probably restricted at Sony.

Oh yeah? Huh...

*casually takes gun out of drawer. Loads it.*

Well, that is some very interesting news indeed Dale.

*sticks gun in mouth*

Thell my famiwy I wove vem.

*pulls trigger. Gun is jammed. Looks down the barrel to see what's the problem. Gets hit by plane going down*

I really want Last Guardian, but this make me think of a few things.

I read a dev interview a couple of years ago in EDGE where someone (sorry this is a vague memory) said that, as much as they loved ICO and SotC, they would not want to work for someone like Ueda, who has expectations of staff that are not conducive to a work/life balance.

Also, look at the development time on Last Guardian. I think he is probably a creative genius, but a terrible manager.

And sadly ICO and SotC did not sell multi millions. Gran Turismo was a best selling series on PSOne and PS2, we are talking 10 million+, so Sony would be more willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, confident that the game would see a return. However, the harsh truth with Last Guardian is that when it comes down to number crunching, Sony cannot indefinately fund development of a game that may not break half a million sales.

Ugh..does this mean I won't get to solve puzzles with my giant rat-bird-dog? Ugh.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
@Tony Ponce: Don't even mention that! T_T

This is such a shame games like this only come once a generation I remembered when I first played ICO it was an awesome experience and I never forgot it even though I only rented it once as a kid. Now I have the collection of both ico and sotc and these games deserve more credit than they recieve.

No one seems to care here about what father33 said. Of Ueda fallin' ill. May be truer the it sounds, though. Hope it's not so, guy's very young.

Isn't this game incredibly late on schedule? I was sure it was coming this year.

They might be leaving it because they realized too late they are making a crappy game and don't want to be in the credits or take the heat.

The End is Nigh....