For a game that began development all the way back in 2007, getting delayed about a month or so before release shouldn't come as a big surprise. If anything, it makes sense. The Last Guardian for PlayStation 4 from the creator of Ico (2001) and Shadow of the Colossus (2005) re-emerged from development hell at E3 2015, much to the amazement and delight of PlayStation fans. After being missing in action for years, one more delay that pushes the release date from late October to December 7 ain't so bad.

Especially when that time will be used to iron out bugs and ensure a more polished version of the game. The announcement was made over at the official PlayStation Blog, by none other than Sony President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida.

The Last Guardian development team is fast-approaching major milestones in production and has made the tough decision to delay the release of The Last Guardian by a few weeks. The Last Guardian will launch on 7th December 2016, across Europe and 9th December 2016 across UK & Ireland.

Fumito Ueda, gen DESIGN and JAPAN Studio have a wonderful vision for The Last Guardian’s touching, emotional journey of friendship and trust, and we want to deliver the most polished experience possible for our fans who have supported us for so long.

A delay is a difficult decision, particularly with this game, but we have encountered more bugs than anticipated while in the final stages of development. To ensure that The Last Guardian delivers on the experience that the game’s creators have envisioned, we need to take the extra time to work on those issues.