The Last Guardian Executive Producer Quits Sony

[Hevva]

The Last Guardian Executive Producer Quits Sony

Yoshifusa Hayama of Team ICO has moved to British online and social games company Bossa Studios.


While last week's news regarding the Bossa Studios. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114459-Rumor-ICO-Creator-Has-Left-Sony]

A quick glance at Hayama's LinkedIn page [http://jp.linkedin.com/in/yoshifusahayama] reveals an impressive roster of games and titles, including his four-year tenure as Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment. It also shows several projects based in England.

In a statement, Hayama said that, "The future of gaming is definitely online and thanks to recent developments with Flash 11, there is no reason why a social game can no longer be as visually stunning and as compelling as the big console titles."

"Together at Bossa we have plans to bring a plethora of games to Facebook and eventually other appropriate social media channels, which include 3D elements and can be enjoyed by all age and interest groups," he continued.

This news has added a little fuel to the slightly panicked flames growing up around the rumor of a rift of sorts between The Last Guardian creative director Fumito Ueda and Sony. Ueda tweeted [https://twitter.com/#!/fumito_ueda/statuses/143730954408701952] that the game (which Google translates from that Tweet as "Trichoderma 大鷲 of cannibalism (The Last Guardian)") is still in development and said that fans really shouldn't worry about it; whether they will continue to do so or not remains to be seen.

The Last Guardian is slated for release in 2012.



Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/07/last-guardian-executive-producer-resigns-joins-bossa-studios/#continued]














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[RaikuFA]

Now watch as Sony cancels this game out of spite like another certain game company.

I'm looking at you Capcom.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, shit.

I just hope they can get The Last Guardian out the door in a decent state.

After that, they can disintegrate as much as they like.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

This is still making me very very worried.

I just hope that everything will be okay and the game will be just as amazing as it looks to be like the creative director says.

They better not cancel the game though.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Must not worry, must not worry, must not worry...

The Last Guardian will be a brilliant game and this is no way a sign that the game's development has been compromised.

[sub]Must not worry, must not worry, must not worry...[/sub]

 

[GonzoGamer]

It's amazing the Playstation brand has survived this generation.

I sometimes feel like the PS3 is going to be Sony's Dreamcast.

 

[bioject]

He left a really awesome a-list title to work on crappy facebook games? I don't care how amazing a social online game might look, social games for the iphone and facebook are a completely different breed of game that I have never taken a liking to. What a waste of potential on his part.

 

[BrotherRool]

UK does not equal England
(I know it's pretty likely to have been in England but Britain would be politer)

 

[Tartarga]

Well this sucks, but i'm glad to see that he'll still be making games. Even if they are just Facebook games. Hopefully this won't effect the quality of The Last Guardian.

 

[Hevva]

UK does not equal England
(I know it's pretty likely to have been in England but Britain would be politer)

Almost all of his work was based in England . I'm Glaswegian, and people mixing up England and the UK peeves me too. I'd never confuse the two.

 

[Korten12]

It's amazing the Playstation brand has survived this generation.

I sometimes feel like the PS3 is going to be Sony's Dreamcast.

Uh... Why? The PS3 has been doing good this gen. Sure there has been some hiccups but not enough to kill the brand.

 

[arealperson]

The guy worked on the QuickTime Events in Shenmue (it's actually specifically listed under his credentials) and didn't actually have a role in creating either Ico or Shadow of the Colossus (he wasn't a Sony employee yet). I don't think they'll be missing him much.

His most impressive stuff appears to be with the Final Fantasy series, so he must be at least somewhat talented. Just not a crucial team member.

 

[Scrustle]

This news makes no sense! Why the hell would he do that? In the middle of developing a game too! I can't comprehend the motivation for doing such a thing. His work is like the antithesis to Facebook games. What the hell happened?

 

[Therumancer]

This news makes no sense! Why the hell would he do that? In the middle of developing a game too! I can't comprehend the motivation for doing such a thing. His work is like the antithesis to Facebook games. What the hell happened?

Money.

Notice the title of "executive producer". Producers are the guys who bankroll games in hopes of getting a return on them. It's uncommon, but not unheard of for a creator and a producer to be the same person.

His work might be the anti-thesis of a facebook game, but he probably wants to use that financially. He's probably looking at the returns coming from social media and the ultra-casual market and going "whoa, I could be making all that bank instead of what I have coming in with these more serious games" and thus he's selling out. He probably figures he can use his reputation and credit list to promote a few Facebook games to people hoping they will be as deep as the experiences he used to create. If these games take off for the long term he's set (whether he lies or not), if they don't he can blame the platform and return to serious game development. Any way it goes it's a worthy business move from his perspective because he's not likely to lose much money.

Honestly though I think he's a bit late to the party, I think we're seeing the slow degeneraton of these facebook games, they are still a HUGE business, but I've read more than a few things talking about how many players are leaving Zynga's games and so on.

 

[Scrustle]

-vasectomy-

If that's all true then I've totally lost all respect for him. Who knew the guy responsible for SotC would do this...

 

[Beautiful End]

Now watch as Sony cancels this game out of spite like another certain game company.

I'm looking at you Capcom.

Freakin' ninja'd. >:/

But yeah, I either see the game being cancelled, delayed even longer or being released eventually but not as good as we expect it to be.

It seems this is a trend now. Square Enix, Capcom...now this. *Sigh*

 

[l3o2828]

...Fuck.

Ok, I really hope this doesn't jeopardize the development of TLG...or else i would of lost all my faith in the gaming industry, because it would seem that people who make great games only prefer doing retarded things that put the newest game and it's fanbase in danger.