The Last Guardian Trademark Abandoned

The internet has discovered yet another nail in the coffin...

US Serial Number:85700141

Application Filing Date:Aug. 09, 2012

Register:Principal

MarkType:Trademark, Service Mark

Status:Abandoned because no Statement of Use or Extension Request timely filed after Notice of Allowance was issued. To view all documents in this file, click on the Trademark Document Retrieval link at the top of this page.

Status Date:Feb. 16, 2015

Publication Date:Nov. 20, 2012

Notice of Allowance Date:Jan. 15, 2013

Date Abandoned:Feb. 16, 2015

Sony has abandoned the trademark. Is this the end, or are they renaming the game?!?!?!?!

Inb4 someone gets the trademark and cobble something up in 10 minutes in Unity and releases the game on steam greenlight.

Shit i should probably do that.

If I was a smart man I'd file a trademark on this and sell it as underwear.

This isn't even the first time this has happened.

Oh...

So you're saying the dream is still alive?

Team Ico made 1 good game and an alright E3 trailer that apparently gave people the feels. I've never seen the hype.

Besides I don't really think this is news and the last guardian should be treated like Half-Life 3. We'll all talk about when there is something to talk about.

More or less. I'm a pretty damn huge SotC fan, and even I sorta stopped caring about The Last Guardian a number of years ago. I'll get excited once we actually have some idea what it is, and when it's coming out.

I can't wait for four years from now when this game gets released and it turns out to be a big disappointment.

It's probably a moba by now.

I feel like anything would be a disappointment by now. They sort of painted themselves in the same corner as Valve did with Half-Life 3, by now nothing they can release will meet the expectations people have. I't probably not impossible that they make a good/great game, but with each passing year it's less likely.

Why do people still care about this game?

The "is it cancelled?" question has already been answered.

A French site asked Sony's French team and were told that Last Guardian is definitely not cancelled.

This happens every time.

I don't understand why people lose there minds over this game

surprising absolutely no one.

Probably because a lot of people really liked (loved) shadow of the colossus and want to see the follow up from the people who made it? People consider that game to be up there with the likes of ocarina of time. You know, greatest of all time type stuff. Doesn't seem like a far stretch to me for people to want more from that studio. And until they announce a new game/cancel the last guardian, the last guardian is what people are looking forward to because.... it's the only game they've announced since SotC.

Seriously though this thread should be locked like the HL3 ones.

@rongalaxy: I get what the guy's saying though, be excited for it sure... but does it still deserve to be recognised the way it currently is? Probably not. They've shown next to nothing of it, Sony clearly gives zero fucks about finishing it, and it's from a developer that missed an entire generation. All bets should be off at this point, but the fandom it still gets is kinda crazy. Whatever it is, whatever it was and whatever it may become will never live up to the unattainable expectations people have placed on it. It can be nothing but a let down.

People should just give up on this game. If it happens it's a pleasant surprise, if it doesn't it'll surprise exactly no one.

"why do people other than me care about this thing that I personally don't care about. much confusing don't understand"

Every time someone mentions the Last Guardian I'm reminded of Jeff asking 'What IS Firewatch!?'.

I see there's no Ico fans here.

I haven't even gotten to play Ico but it's funny that you guys are mentioning SotC only. Either way the new cycle begins. People say it's cancelled, Sony says nothing specific but that it's not cancelled, wait like 3 months.

@creamypies: loosely because it's from the creaters that made Shadow of the Colossus one of the best PS2 games. I'm interested but it has been such a let down that I don't really follow it anymore.

At this point, if there truly is a game to be had, they should abandon the name "The Last Guardian" and Trico. Keep the mechanics and shit, but change the artistic direction and that fucking name. "New game from creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus" sounds a million times better and carries way more positive vibes than "The Last Guardian, finally".

I think it's mostly because the stuff that was amazing in Ico was incorporated by other games. It's still a great-ass game (even if some of the controls hold up worse), but it's been done over the years. SotC, on the other hand, hasn't really been replicated.

@2headedninja said:

I don't really understand this logic. Maybe this is just me, but my expectations are significantly lower than they were when they released the initial trailer, because now I know that development hasn't gone well. The only thing that's been growing is people's thirst for information, not their excitement.

@ghostiet: That seems fair. Just funny that that's the reaction at first.

Me neither.

Who are losing their minds over it?

It's worth remembering that, for all intents and purposes, Last Guardian is *just* a trailer. There's no proof anything other than that trailer actually exists.

@twinsun said:

I know that I have seen a lot of videos made by certain websites, stuff like GameTrailers etc. that keep mentioning it as a most anticipated game, even when the information concerning it is pretty much nil. I understand that people are excited for it based on the trailer that we saw some time ago, and the pedigree. I assume it's much like the reaction I have concerning any videos, news or rumors, about Kingdom Hearts 3.

But I know that that game is so far off that I am not even bothering to talk about it as a game. It's an idea. Someone said "Yeah, we're doing that" and made some pretty trailers. But that's about it. I think with Last Guardian we have even less to go on. It's too bad they showed what they had so early. I think it actually may harm the game in the long run, if it ever comes out. I hope it does, but we'll see. And all this talk is kind of pointless until Sony decides to give us something more concrete.

Some gameplay did get shown to the press, but even that shouldn't raise people's hopes up as this was back in 2011.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-last-guardian-preview/1100-6301593/

It could be that Last Guardian has gone through 1 or 2 redesigns and that is the reason why it has taken so long in development. Though has Sony actually showed any concrete proof to press that the game is in development other than categorically denying that it hasnt been canceled?

Last Guardian seems to be a bit of a prestige project for Sony. Almost any other game would have been just canceled at this point. Though letting trademark expire is bit of a sign that the game probably isnt coming out. Renaming it to something else would be just bad marketing since the current name has brand recognition.

They really should just officially put a nail in this thing. I mean I know people were excited for it but at this point even the people who are hardcore ICO Team fans could ANYTHING that they release possibly live up to the spectre of hype built up around this game?

Thanks for the news, man. Much appreciated.

I still care about this game. Interesting case.

I believed in Final Fantasy Versus 13 and I got it. I'll continue to believe in The Last Guardian until they say it's over.

It was a helluva trailer, guys. The concept alone seemed ripe with gameplay and storytelling possibilities. It also indicates they spent a great deal of time on it; i'm pretty sure all of that was real time and in engine, not pre rendered. Count me still excited and hopeful, if not exactly losing my shit (way to put words in people's mouths).

That's kind of close to how I feel about it, I'm more excited by the prospect of a new game from the developers then the game they originally announced. If they ever do release this specific game I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at it, but if they announced a completely different game I'd be excited.

Also to throw my hat into the 'why are people excited' ring, I really love companies that release games that are drastically different then their previous works. With their first two games you went from hitting ghost monsters with a wood plank and holding a girls hand, to charging your horse towards 100 foot monsters, it was really cool how unique the two games were from the same developer. I find myself craving a new experience these days more then anything, so as I stated above, really, I'm less excited for any game in particular from them, but more excited for something new they would bring to the table, whatever it may be.

Maybe that's why it's taking forever/was canceled? It can't exactly be easy to set out to make a new way of approaching things in a game, especially when it's so common place to rinse and repeat the same game mechanics over and over for other game studios.

The Last Guardian's trademark in the US has been abandoned, but it appears this was due to an administrative error at PlayStation America, as Sony has confirmed to GameSpot that the project is still in development.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-last-guardian-still-in-development-sony-assure/1100-6425341/

*whispers* Don't tell anyone...

As someone who played both of the games pretty much back to back a couple of years ago and who enjoyed SoTC quite a bit, I can tell you, that Ico aged very, VERY poorly.

Part of it may be the fact that they are afraid of their own legacy, so there's this idea to refine it until you deem it "fit" enough to stand next to those two games they've made. It's no longer "let's make a new game and try make it better than the last one, or at least different ", it's "let's make another classic". It's the kind of thinking that gave us the development story of Duke Nukem Forever, the one that makes Peter Molyneux overpromise and dismiss his previous games to hype the next one and the one that guys like Kojima absolutely reject.

It's obviously speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that was the primary reason why they have such a problem putting this game out.

Whatever will happen, is what will happen. Different name? Quick recovery of trademark? Nothing?

In the end it will be what it will be, and SOny will do what it will do. Sure, ist nice to know, but at this point whatever game comes out is coming out a square one bottom of the pile. It ios neither helpful or not helpful to use the name. At this point, even saying "From the people who brought you Ico or Shadow of the Colossus" has far less meaning than it would have six years ago.

At this point they should just pull a MGS Rising and give it to Platinum Games, they'll know what to do. At least it worked extremely well for Revengeance.

The Last Guardian: Revengeance... think about it!

The Last Guardian might be a good name for a Destiny sequel. Though the Last Guardians would be better. Still probably close enough to provoke a trademark dispute if it hadn't been abandoned.

Maybe ... I just feel like the longer it takes to make the game the more people in general build up expectations. I might be wrong though, you have a good point. Maybe it's more about information by now.

In my opinion, those team Ico games, not very good. Get all hyped up for what? This studio should be ridiculed for not being about to put out a new game for 10 years now. Are you fucking serious? They get hype from where? Kaz's ass? If you were a business person, would you put up with some studio not producing a damn thing for 10 years?

The lawyer who was in charge of renewing the trademark got fired. So yeah...Sony's not happy about this mishap.

I'm really surprised that people would rather The Last Guardian not come out. I guess I just don't get the "It'll never live up to the expectations, so they shouldn't make it" thing. By this logic nobody should ever make another game after their big hit. At least Sony us making the right moves when they talk about it. A lot better than other games where it's a constant hype train.

@jesushammer: I think people are frustrated.

Two games. Latest release 2005. Ueda leaves. Team Ico misses the entire (super-long) hardware generation.

Here's what I'm curious about: How is everyone supposed to react when Sony makes the next big E3, console-selling, Team Ico announcement? I understand hater-gon-hate but at some point...

I played Ico for the first time a couple summers ago and thought it was awesome. Like an interactive Hayao Miyazaki movie. I'd still recommend it to people. Maybe it was just even better back in the day.

SotC was pretty great but people seem to be forgetting that when that game first game out on the PS2, it was almost unplayable with all those awful frame rate problems.

@viciousbearmauling:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/17/sony-the-last-guardian-is-still-in-development-despite-trademark-lapse