Of course, if I’m wrong and this ends up as one of the last PS3 titles coming before the new system arrives, it’s no big deal. But given that the game is still in development according to this recent post on Fumito Ueda’s site, rumors of other studios assisting in the dev process and my thinking for a while now that this switch to a new console and the resulting stress may be one of the unspoken reasons for him leaving SCE Japan, things are adding up to something intriguing. Actually, for about a year or so I’ve been thinking that TLG would indeed make a spectacular launch title for the new system, given the penchant for many launch titles to, well… suck a whole lot when looked back upon (or worse, suck a lot when they’re initially played).

From the first reveal, it was clear that The Last Guardian was definitely not going to suck a lot (or even a little) and somehow, its former fate as a tail-end PS3 game doomed to history as “the last great game on a dying console” needed to be dealt with. Sure, the old gal needs to (and frankly, should) go out on a high note, shattering a few windows as she’s sent up to console Valhalla. However, Sony has a few key killer first-party games on the way that insure the system will be VERY well remembered as one where the company’s internal dev teams were knocking it out of the park early (and often) for years…

Given that the game has been so long in development, the high interest in it from its announcement a few years back by gamers of all stripes, the constant push internally at Sony for their first party games to be as visually outstanding as possible on their hardware and the need for a killer app to launch a new console with, it only seems logical to me that SCEJ decided at some point to shift over (at great expense) development to whatever that new system is going to be called. Given that ICO was initially going to be a PSOne game before heading to the PS2 and the HD versions of that game and Shadow of the Colossus looked and ran great in HD, it’s quite clear that Sony would love nothing more than to have that ONE exclusive that’s not another yearly FPS retread, a cross-platform game that gets nit-picked apart by internet trolls or something equally expected (fighter, racing, sports, generic JRPG) as a “system seller”.

I have the feeling I’ll find out Wednesday for sure if I’ve been on the right track – it seems the rest of the internet is finally catching up with me. I’ll let you know of course if I’m right or wrong…