Sony has confirmed that Team Ico boss Fumito Ueda has left its employ and is overseeing completion of The Last Guardian on a freelance basis.
In a statement passed to Gamasutra, Sony confirmed reports of Ueda's departure but insisted he was "committed to completing" the game.
News first broke of Ueda, 41, quitting Sony at the beginning of this month, with sources telling Eurogamer he intended to work on "personal projects" when work on the long-awaited PlayStation 3 exclusive The Last Guardian - announced in 2009 - was finally completed. Ueda did little to dispel the rumours when he broke a week-long Twitter silence last week, posting: "I've received a lot of questions...there's no need to worry, as The Last Guardian is still in production."
Ueda revealed in April that The Last Guardian had been delayed until 2012 "to provide more challenging and better quality of content to users." The game's producer, Yoshifusa Hayama, has also quit Sony, joining East London-based social game startup Bossa Studios as creative director last week.
Source: Gamasutra