Release of 'The Last Guardian' pushed back to December, Sony promises a 'polished' experience

The release of “The Last Guardian” is officially being pushed back again. This time, the long-awaited game will hit the market in December, and Sony is promising “the most polished experience possible.”

The announcement was made via a blogpost from SCE President Shuhei Yoshida. “The Last Guardian development team is fast approaching major milestones in production and has made the tough decision to delay the release of The Last Guardian a few weeks,” he wrote. “The Last Guardian will launch on Dec. 6, 2016.”

Yoshida also shared that the team behind “The Last Guardian” has a beautiful story to tell and an even more striking vision for how to share it. “We want to deliver the most polished experience possible for our fans who have supported us for so long,” he said.

He also went on to say that the decision to again delay the title’s release was a difficult one, but that it had to be made in order to more successfully meet gamers’ expectations.

It has been seven years since “The Last Guardian” was first revealed to the public. At the E3 back in 2009, the game was discussed as the project of Fumito Ueda, who was also behind “Ico” and “Shadow Of The Colossus.” Back then, it was announced that the game would be released in 2011 as an exclusive title to the PlayStation 3. But a series of unforeseen circumstances -- like Ueda leaving Sony and other hardware difficulties -- led to multiple delays.

The narrative behind “The Last Guardian” is a beautiful one, so it is only understandable why Sony Interactive Entertainment is doing its best to carry out a promise that was made years ago.

The story, which is told by an elder man, follows a young boy who was kidnapped. After some time, he awakes to find his body suddenly covered in tattoos and himself trapped in a massive castle. In his attempt to free himself, he finds Trico, who is a half-bird and half-mammal hybrid and has obviously been tortured. After the young boy gains Trico’s trust, the two work together to escape.