Team Ico Lead: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus "Weren't Good Enough"

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Team Ico Lead: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus "Weren't Good Enough"

The man behind two of the most beloved games of all time thinks his masterpieces could have been better.

Most people who played Team Ico's last-generation titles Ico and Shadow of the Colossus fell in love with the two games. To many, these two games were the biggest arguments one could make that games were in fact art.

Unfortunately, the games - particularly Ico - didn't sell as well as some - particularly publisher Sony - might have hoped. Was that a result of subpar marketing campaigns, perhaps? Or was it that their quirky Japanese design didn't go over in the West?

No, says creator Fumito Ueda, the beloved games just weren't good enough to sell.

"I believe the issue is with the product," Ueda told Edge [http://www.next-gen.biz/features/fumito-ueda-on-the-last-guardian?page=0%2C2]. "The fact that Ico and SOTC didn't sell well is because they weren't good enough. They didn't have enough to appeal to users. The Last Guardian wants to learn from this. I'm making the game so that it's appealing, with the hope that many people will give it a try and love it."

I'm all for game designers learning from their mistakes, sure - it's how sequels improve on what came before - and I'm as excited for The Last Guardian as anybody, but saying that Ico and Colossus weren't good enough? You take that back, Fumito Ueda. You take that back right now.

The rest of the interview with Ueda - who judging by this is apparently the Japanese Peter Molyneux - is well worth a read for anyone interested in Team Ico's upcoming The Last Guardian, so check out the full thing at Edge [http://www.next-gen.biz/features/fumito-ueda-on-the-last-guardian?page=0%2C2].

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Tanis

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Aug 30, 2010
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Well, in SotC the horse was drunk...did take away from the game a bit...?
 

RA92

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Jan 1, 2011
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Of course it wasn't good 'nuff.

Because there wasn't a PC version!
 
Dec 14, 2009
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They didn't sell well because, as much as we like to believe that gamers aren't prepubescent wankers with the attention span that only CoD can appease, the majority are.

If that makes me sound like an elitist than so be it, but when Team Ico gets shut down because not enough people are buying their brilliant games, it will be a sad day.
 

tehweave

Gaming Wildlife
Apr 5, 2009
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Daystar Clarion said:
They didn't sell well because, as much as we like to believe that gamers aren't prepubescent wankers with the attention span that only CoD can appease, the majority are.

If that makes me sound like an elitist than so be it, but when Team Ico gets shut down because not enough people are buying their brilliant games, it will be a sad day.
You're not an elitist. I for one didn't really like SOTC just because of how empty the game felt, but it was still at least somewhat enjoyable.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Huh.

...

Well, if that means he's going to make The Last Guardian even better then hey, I'm not going to get in the man's way.

I don't know how exactly you go about making a game more appealing though. Well, y'know, aside from handing the player a gun and pointing them at some non-white people or aliens. That always seems to work.
 

Brainst0rm

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Apr 8, 2010
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To me, the sign of a really good gamer developer/artist is never being satisfied, especially with work of his that's generally held up as amazing. When an artist gets complacent and happy with what he's already done - that's when everything goes to shit.

So, Fumito Ueda. You keep on being dissatisfied, and keep on making great games :)
 

ryo02

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Oct 8, 2007
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more appealing ... to the masses ... to sell more ... to mindless masses ... T_T NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
 

teebeeohh

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Jun 17, 2009
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and this happens in the same universe where Transformers 2 sucked because it was rushed
 

Casual Shinji

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Is this why every Last Guardian trailer has this bouncy musical score; So that it's more appealing to the mainstream? 'Cause I got to tell you, it was pretty offputting.

I hope Ueda isn't going to sacrifice new and interesting gameplay for the sake of marketability. Or is this why The Last Guardian has been delayed to 2012; So they can add more "bang for your buck", like multiplayer? ...All of a sudden I'm getting the shakes.
 

RedEyesBlackGamer

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Jan 23, 2011
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Daystar Clarion said:
They didn't sell well because, as much as we like to believe that gamers aren't prepubescent wankers with the attention span that only CoD can appease, the majority are.

If that makes me sound like an elitist than so be it, but when Team Ico gets shut down because not enough people are buying their brilliant games, it will be a sad day.
You aren't an elitist. Your avatar is another game that should have sold more. I'm with ya. Same can be said of films. Revenge of the Fallen grosses more than 400 million. Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet barely nets 4 million. The majority of consumers are like that.
 

Canadish

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Jul 15, 2010
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John Funk said:
Raiyan 1.0 said:
Of course it wasn't good 'nuff.

Because there wasn't a PC version!
Published by Sony = PlayStation exclusive.
Though saying that, it's not like you CANT get it on PC.
It's probably not legal, but you can emulated versions I believe.

Just make sure to post Team ICO $60 for being awesome.

Otherwise, in relation to the OP;
Mind.
Blown.

Shadow of the Colossus remains my tip top favorite game of all time. And probably ever.
And that "wasn't good enough"!?
How is this man pleased? I pity his wife.
Regardless, cant wait for The Last Guardian. It's looking great from what I've seen so far.
 

Legion

Were it so easy
Oct 2, 2008
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Daystar Clarion said:
They didn't sell well because, as much as we like to believe that gamers aren't prepubescent wankers with the attention span that only CoD can appease, the majority are.

If that makes me sound like an elitist than so be it, but when Team Ico gets shut down because not enough people are buying their brilliant games, it will be a sad day.
I agree on all but the last part.

Why?

Whenever a company says they are going for mass appeal, they are saying that they will change it to appeal to a wider market, and that always almost results in a game being simplified, streamlined (in other words, linear and repetitive) or full of explosions or flashy moments (think DA2's combat and Mass Effects "hollywood feel") in order to bring in the people who don't like games that require using their brains.
 

Noebahde

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Apr 2, 2011
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ryo02 said:
more appealing ... to the masses ... to sell more ... to mindless masses ... T_T NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
You took the words out of my mouth I need compelling visual video game narratives that most people (for some reason) can't stand so that unique and wonderful games can evoke truly deep human experiences that all medians of art are meant to do.

/never forget Silent Hill and Rule of Rose
 

Valdus

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Apr 7, 2011
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Geez...if they think the games aren't good enough I sure as hell wanna see what they think is! Unless the game pays my bills and comes with a hottie to "take care" of me between games I don't see how much better they could really get.