In 2016, GenDesign released The Last Guardian, and although its next game hasn't released yet, it could appear at the Tokyo Game Show. It's no surprise that the next project is taking a while; The Last Guardian spent over seven years in development hell, transitioning from the PlayStation 3 to the PlayStation 4, with director Fumito Ueda even leaving Sony during the game's development. The game also marked the end of Team Ico, the developer of beloved PlayStation classics such as Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, with the remaining team members founding an independent studio named GenDesign in 2014, before going on to finish The Last Guardian.

Since the release of The Last Guardian, GenDesign has remained almost dead silent regarding the status of its next project, likely a lesson learned from the tumultuous development of The Last Guardian, which included many public delays and disagreements with publisher Sony. That said, evidence has pointed toward the studio gearing up to reveal its next title before the end of the year, and with Tokyo Game Show around the corner, it seems like the announcement could come a lot sooner than expected.

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GenDesign After The Last Guardian

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The Last Guardian shipped in December 2016 after nine years of development, and over eleven years after Team Ico shipped Shadow of the Colossus on the PlayStation 2. The game's launch seemed to mark the end of GenDesign's partnership with Sony, and in 2018, GenDesign began teasing its next game, releasing a vague image of a young woman and large figure captioned "Beauty and the Beast, 2018." Fumito Ueda revealed later that year that the studio had begun prototyping for its next project, with funding from independent video game industry investor Kowloon Nights.

As Sony began to dismantle its Japanese studios in 2020, reworking them into the current iteration of Team Asobi, the developer of the Astro Bot series, GenDesign returned with an exciting announcement. The studio announced that it was entering a publishing deal with Epic Games to publish its next game, a multi-platform title. This will be the studio's first fully developed project as an independent team, and it was announced that Epic will be fully funding the project, while profits from the game will be split 50/50 with Epic and GenDesign.

This was the first major news to come from GenDesign concerning its next game, implying that the wait wouldn't be as painful as The Last Guardian's, with Epic Games delivering the studio a seemingly very beneficial publishing deal. GenDesign would go silent once again until 2021, where the studio teased its next game once again in a New Year's post card on its website, displaying art that appeared to show a young girl standing beneath a giant mechanical creature. This art was lined up alongside images from Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, implying that it is indicative of Fumito Ueda and GenDesign's upcoming game.

While most of 2021 was spent celebrating Ico's 20th anniversary, with various GenDesign employees conducting interviews to mark the occasion, the most recent tease for the studio's next game came in the form of art posted in January of this year by Fumito Ueda. Alongside the artwork of a tiger to mark the Chinese New Year, Ueda claimed he will try to make some new announcements in 2022, implying that the team began this year planning to announce its next game.

RELATED: Why Ico Is Still Unforgettable, 20 Years Later

Could GenDesign's Next Game Appear At Tokyo Game Show?

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It's hard to deny the possibility that GenDesign could announce the next big title at Tokyo Game Show. Under Sony, Team Ico showcased both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus at Tokyo Game Show events, with Ico initially being revealed as a PS1 game and Shadow of the Colossus originally being revealed as Nico, a co-operative sequel to Ico that featured four players taking down giant beasts.

Many of GenDesign's social media posts in recent years have been job listings for upcoming projects, as the game is still in active development and is likely years away from release. These days, some games are announced early to gather interest for potential jobseekers within the industry, meaning that even if the game is still well into development, there is a chance that GenDesign could show it at Tokyo Game Show to help fill its job vacancies. Tactics like this have been cited as the reason why the likes of the next Mass Effect, The Witcher, and Tomb Raider games were announced so early into development.

All of this is speculation however, as it is just as likely however that Epic Games is waiting to announce GenDesign's next event at a mainstream western event like The Game Awards as it did with Remedy's Alan Wake 2 last December. Epic Games has teamed up with host Geoff Keighley in the past and is likely planning to give the game the biggest reveal it can have. Regardless, there is still a chance that GenDesign's next game will be revealed well before the end of 2022.

GenDesign's next game is currently in development.

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