Fumito Ueda departure confirmed by Sony

Shadow of the Colossus developer Fumito Ueda has left his position at Sony, the console giant has confirmed.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Sony confirmed the recent rumours of his departure, whilst revealing he will continue his work on The Last Guardian on a contract basis.

Ueda is said to be “committed to completing” the project after years of development.

The news follows the resignation of The Last Guardian’s executive producer Yoshifusa Hayama who left to join Newscorp owned Bossa Studios.

The Last Guardian is only Ueda’s third project for Sony since starting work for the company in 1997, but his previous titles Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have been critically acclaimed as classics on the PlayStation consoles.

His latest title was first revealed nearly three years ago in March 2009, but the game has yet to be seen in playable form amid rumours of a difficult development.

Shuhei Yoshida, who commands Sony’s global fleet of 16 development studios, recently claimed progress for The Last Guardian has been “very difficult, not as fast as we’d been hoping for, and the team has been under big pressure.”