When the highly anticipated Team Ico opus The Last Guardian failed to make an appearance at this year’s E3 or Tokyo Game Show, gamers began to fear the worst: the game had been cancelled. Then came news that Fumito Ueda, the man thought to be the unifying vision behind The Last Guardian, had parted ways with Sony, and things looked even bleaker.

Now comes a rumor which suggests what we had feared all along: The Last Guardian has been cancelled. This cancellation notice has reached the gaming newsphere by way of GameStop, who has apparently been informing gamers that the product was “canceled by vendor,” meaning Sony scrapped the product.

It was a confusing series of events to say the last — Ueda leaving and then GameStop now claiming the project has been canned — but there was still no confirmation from Sony one way or the other, so we still held out hope.

And then, like a shining beacon of light, Sony reached out to Kotaku to say that this Last Guardian cancellation rumor is completely false. Sony’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications said simply, “This is not true.”

So now we’re left wondering in what state The Last Guardian might be in. Yes, the project has not been cancelled according to Sony, but something seemed to suggest to GameStop that it was. Typically retailers are at the forefront of this information, usually breaking high profile game release dates and what not, but when a publisher jumps in to squelch a rumor it has to be the final say. Right?

There’s something Sony doesn’t want to tell us, and part of that something has been relayed to GameStop — unless of course they completely dropped the ball on this one (a possibility). The Last Guardian still ranks very high on our most anticipated list no matter what year it releases, so hopefully Sony can find some direction with this project and deliver as compelling a single player experience as the trailers suggest.

[Update: GameStop is now claiming that because The Last Guardian did not have a release date, they decided to remove the game from their system, which triggered the automated calls stating the game was no more. There you have it, The Last Guardian is not cancelled.]

Do you think that The Last Guardian is cancelled or is it some sort of miscommunication with GameStop? As this game continues to be veiled in secrecy, and fails to make appearances, do you lose enthusiasm for it?

Source: Kotaku