Sony Trademarks ‘The Last Guardian’ Again As PS4 Drives Huge Revenues

Sony Playstation — A person plays a video game at a Sony PlayStation in the Sony's flagship store in Berlin, April 27, 2011. Reuters/Thomas Peter

Sony’s slow dance with “The Last Guardian” continues as the publisher once again renews the game’s trademark application. This latest application marks the third time the company has had to renew it, and it begs the question: when will the game be finished? While gamers would no doubt love to get their hands on the title, Sony itself seems to be doing just fine without it, as new reports show the PlayStation brand is in rude health.

The latest filing is publicly viewable on the USPTO website, indicating the renewal was made on March 12. As noted by PushSquare, the filing follows an episode in February which actually saw the trademark expire. At the time, rumours of the project’s cancellation swirled, but Sony chalked the incident up to a clerical error and promised gamers that the title was still being worked on.

Despite being officially revealed at E3 2009, development on “The Last Guardian” has been plagued by numerous delays and a tumultuous development cycle. A report by Gamasutra from 2011 confirmed rumours that acclaimed director Fumito Ueda and his producer Yoshifusa Hamaya had both left Sony. Subsequent information indicated that Ueda was still working on the project, though, as a contractor. Speaking with Games Industry in late 2013, president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, gave an update on the game’s status.

“So we're waiting for the right time to re-introduce ‘The Last Guardian’ in an appropriate way. I can't... Well, the game is in development, and it's well-staffed, and Ueda-san is here, working - even though he's not a Sony employee, he's dedicated to the product,“ he said.

Since then, official updates on the status of “The Last Guardian” have been hard to come by. Sony maintains that the game is coming along just fine and a 2014 report by Kotaku hints at a transition to the PlayStation 4 as the primary development platform.

Lately, Sony has shown an increased willingness to delay titles for as long as necessary if the platform holder believes in the developer’s vision. Titles such as “Driveclub,” “Bloodborne,” “The Order 1886,” “Tomorrow Children,” “Helldivers” and most recently “Uncharted 4” have all been granted extra development time.

Regardless of the delays, the PlayStation division doesn’t appear to be suffering. Polygon reports that Sony’s gaming division is performing admirably, recording sales and operating revenue of of $4.35 billion for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2013. The nearly 65 percent increase in year-on-year revenue has been driven by the impressive performance of the PS4.

As previously reported, Sony announced that the PlayStation 4 had sold a staggering 20.2 million units to consumers worldwide. These figures make the PS4 the fastest selling PlayStation console in history, beating the impressive records set by the PSone and PS20.