The next game from the developers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus has been in turmoil for quite some time. Team Ico have seen employees come and go since the announcement of the game, The Last Guardian.
Unfortunately, even more bad news has surfaced for this highly promising title. It appears that the trademark in the US has been listed as “dead” and “abandoned”.
PlaystationLifeStyle recently learned that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has the trademark for The Last Guardian listed as “(ABANDONED)” and that the Live/Dead Indicator also states that the trademark is “DEAD”.
Trademarkia states:
“Abandonment Notice! On Monday, August 6, 2012, status on the THE LAST GUARDIAN trademark changed to ABANDONED – NO STATEMENT OF USE FILED.” as well as “Status Update! On Monday, August 6, 2012, status on the THE LAST GUARDIAN trademark changed to ABANDONED – NO STATEMENT OF USE FILED.”
This may not necessarily mean that the game is actually cancelled, after all this could be due to a change in the name of the game. It hasn’t been a smooth development process for the game, with even Ueda having chosen to go freelance, but he is still contracted to make sure the game is finished. Even Sony Santa Monica were called upon to fix a game breaking problem and make sure the game finally gets released, so it isn’t as if Sony haven’t tried to get the finished product on to shelves. However this awkward development process could have come to an end, with Sony finally giving up on the project. For now, we can only guess the status of the game.
When questioned about the status of the trademark and what it means for the game, Sony said that they “don’t comment on rumors or speculation”.
