Fumito Ueda, the creative mind behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, will be speaking at a panel at the Game Developer’s Conference. Could an announcement be imminent?
The panel, which is titled “Evolving Game Design: Today and Tomorrow, East and West Game Design,” will examine the most important trends in recent game designs and look ahead to where things are headed in the next few years with particular attention to how things will play out across Japan and the West. Participating are Goichi “Suda51” Suda of Killer7 and No More Heroes fame, Emil Pagliarulo, who was the lead designer on Fallout 3 and Fumito Ueda, the head of Sony’s Team ICO.
No offense to Plagliarulo or Suda51 or the developers for whom this panel’s really designed, but for gamers most of the attention’s going to be on Ueda. It’s been almost four years since his last game, Shadow of the Colossus, and we haven’t heard word one about his team’s supposedly monumental PS3 title. Aside from a cryptic image of a chain and some moss-covered stones that some seem convinced is confirmation of an ICO sequel, fans of Ueda’s work have been completely in the dark for some time now.
Can we expect an announcement from Ueda at GDC? Probably not. The panel is for discussing the specific issues at hand, not for making big reveals. Either way, it should be an interesting discussion between three accomplished and extremely different developers.
Still, maybe while Ueda’s there, he’ll just drop a few hints, or maybe even reveal another ultra-cryptic image that fans will then digest and discuss and somehow figure out is a confirmation of Ueda’s next game. A rock surrounded by fog with a black leopard next to it? It’s gotta be ICO 3!
