Some game delays can go on for years, seeing games announced at big events that somehow through issues behind-the-scenes get stuck in development hell. Some make it out eventually, in one form or another (be it the game itself, an altered version of the same title or something completely different); while others perish entirely. Unfortunately for those hoping to see The Last Guardian ever release, it seems to have just become the latter of the two.

Sony Computer Entertainment America have decided that they are not going to extend their hold on the trademark for the title, which seems to suggest that the project itself could have finally just been shelved indefinitely. The team working on the game was Team Ico, creators of Shadow of the Colossus and ICO and was announced after both those titles were such successes.

Having been announced during the days of the PS2, it’s been in development since 2007 and was supposed to release for the PS3. However as time went on without updates, Sony began to avoid answering too many questions regarding its status and speculation grew about what was going on, as it tends to when official information is lacking. However as recently as August last year Sony was reassuring gamers that The Last Guardian was still an active project.

Now it seems that the game will never be. Unless of course a decision has been taken to rename the game and hasn’t been announced yet. After all, no official cancellation announcement has been formerly made by Sony or Team Ico, so The Last Guardian might yet become one of those development hell games that surfaces at last in a guise different from the one we were expecting.