GameStop Says The Last Guardian is Canceled; Sony Says No - UPDATED

[Andy Chalk]

GameStop Says The Last Guardian is Canceled; Sony Says No - UPDATED

GameStop says Team Ico's The Last Guardian is canceled and has dropped the game from its preorder lineup, but Sony says that's simply not true.

longer than expected [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Guardian-Playstation-3/dp/B002BSA18K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324593174&sr=8-1], but insisted that work was ongoing. "We're still making progress, so I'd like to continue to support and keep waiting for great news sometime in the future," he said at the time.

And now here we are in the future, but the news is not great. It's not necessarily bad, either, but it certainly is confusing. GameStop has reportedly pulled the game from its "coming soon" list and has been contacting customers to tell them it's canceled. The game is no longer listed on the GameStop website and two retail locations told Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5870565/gamestop-says-the-last-guardian-is-canceled-sony-says-its-not] it's no longer in their point-of-sale system either.

Both Yoshifusa Hayama [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114459-Rumor-ICO-Creator-Has-Left-Sony] recently departed Sony for greener pastures, which presumably can't bode well for the game, but in spite of that Sony says the game has not been canceled at all. Sony's Senior Director of Corporate Communications Patrick Seybold said the report is simply "not true," while Yoshida has said on Twitter that the game has not been canceled.

So what's actually going on? The truth of the matter will likely become clear fairly quickly; fingers crossed that when the dust settles, reports of The Last Guardian's demise will turn out to be greatly exaggerated.

UPDATE: Good news, everyone! GameStop screwed it up.

"The Last Guardian has not been cancelled by Sony as we incorrectly stated in an automated call to reservation customers," the company said in a statement. "Because the game did not have a specific release date, GameStop made the decision to remove the game from our system. The Last Guardian will be reinstated for pre-order when a firm launch date is known."

So hang on to those preorders, folks! Your patience will be rewarded - eventually.


Permalink

 

[Stoic raptor]

I have been waiting for this game. I really hope it hasn't been canceled.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I should really read the whole title of an article before I have an aneurysm.

I saw 'The Last Guardian is cancelled' and just about died.


I hope the game is okay, this is one of the reasons I bought a PS3

 

[blah_ducks]

HaHA! I freaking knew it! Gamestop called me today and I was so pissed but I decided to hang on to my preorder. Real glad I did too. Man, this made my day! C:

 

[Zhukov]

I should really read the whole title of an article before I have an aneurysm.

I saw 'The Last Guardian is cancelled' and just about died.


I hope the game is okay, this is one of the reasons I bought a PS3

My thoughts exactly.

I shall be most perturbed if this game dies in the arse.

 

[universaltraveller]

I cannot wait for this game... And I will, most probably throw my ps out the window if it gets cancelled, and then cry as I remember there's dust 514 to wait for....

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Oh God that title nearly killed me. I hope to god gamestop has got it wrong because I may have to retire my ps3 if the last guardian is cancelled.

EDIT

Relief, now I can go back to worrying about which I'll get first, my pension or the last guardian

 

[Nouw]

This is part of the reason why I don't really trust Gamestop with information about games. Yes I live in NZ, but the release dates and such do affect me.

 

[dragongit]

Last Guardian, forever.

 

[AbstractStream]

Oh good, thankfully it's not canceled. It's just that the wait is much longer now. Greeeat.

 

[Ipsen]

Ah, my friend, the gamestop robot...I'll forgive this blunder. Though I can understand the move to call it canceled; a game that is struggling to meet even a seasonal date isn't far off in concept from a game with no release date. I have sky-high hopes for this game, even now, and if it's good, I'll follow Ueda to whatever platform he's headed.

This is part of the reason why I don't really trust Gamestop with information about games. Yes I live in NZ, but the release dates and such do affect me.

Being on the internet, you don't need to trust Gamestop with information about release dates. You're close to, if not in the same field they probably have for finding release dates/periods for games.

 

[gyroc1]

I'm glad the game's not cancelled, but with those 2 major designers gone I do wonder if The Last Guardian will still be a good game.

 

[Beautiful End]

Ah, my friend, the gamestop robot...I'll forgive this blunder. Though I can understand the move to call it canceled; a game that is struggling to meet even a seasonal date isn't far off in concept from a game with no release date. I have sky-high hopes for this game, even now, and if it's good, I'll follow Ueda to whatever platform he's headed.

This is part of the reason why I don't really trust Gamestop with information about games. Yes I live in NZ, but the release dates and such do affect me.

Being on the internet, you don't need to trust Gamestop with information about release dates. You're close to, if not in the same field they probably have for finding release dates/periods for games.

Thank you, sir, for your infinite intelligence. This is all true. GameStop is at the mercy of developers when it comes to release dates. If a game is pushed back, guess what? It's not GameStop's fault. GameStop is just as surprised as you are when a game is pushed back. I mean, do you think it was their fault that Duke Nukem got pushed back more than a decade? Or that FFXIV's console release has been pushed back almost a year? If anything, if it was up to GameStop, they would release all the most anticipated games NOW, being the Holidays and all and taking into consideration the amount of money they would get from these sales.

I'm still not sure why GameStop gets such hate from the public. Sure, there's things I don't like about it but come on, it's just another business! *Sigh* But I digress...

/drops the subject.

OT: I hope this doesn't mean the game will be pushed back again until 2014 or something. Or even worse, that it DOES get cancelled at some point. I wouldn't be surprised if it happen, honestly, but I just don't want that to happen. I just don't...

 

[oldtaku]

I'm not really sure this is good news. I really wanted this game, but now it sure has the corpse-stench of death. Really going to have to see some reviews first at this point.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Take as long as you need Team Ico, If it needs another year then give it another year.

I'm so excited for the game but I want it to be as good as SOTC.

 

[Jumplion]

Take as long as you need Team Ico, If it needs another year then give it another year.

I'm so excited for the game but I want it to be as good as SOTC.

Same here, though I'm worried that the fan-driven hype for the game will only lead to disappointment for most. I mean, I'm really friggin' excited for this game to, but I'm trying to keep as much info about the game as I can away from me so I will come to the game fresh. Since Ico and SotC were emotionally rich games, I think the expectation that The Last Guardian will be as tear-jerking as the others will just make us expect to be crying, which doesn't really help the game.

Still, I was about to scream a "NOOOOO!!!" to the high heavens for this game if it were not for the update.