The Last Guardian Loses Trademark

Team ICO’s adorable rat-lion-bird-dragon slips further into obscurity as Trademarkia (via IGN) announce that The Last Guardian‘s trademark switched to “abandoned” on August 6th.

No official word has come from the developers themselves, but even that crowd who regard cups as generally full must surely be furrowing their collective brows in puzzlement. Whilst it didn’t take long for the spiritual successor to Shadow of the Colossus to garner critical darling status, a first impression only lasts so long.

It’s easy to forget, The Last Guardian posed (poses) substantial risk to Sony, even at a conceptual level. Team ICO’s games are always brilliantly received but fail to hit blockbuster sales. As time pushes on, the seemingly infallible mark Wander and Agro left on our psyches has to work harder and harder to justify Trico’s existence and the aeon we’ve waited for it.

Heck, no one even really knows how the game would play. I tried to contrive something engaging out of the relationship ‘twixt man and rat-beast and all I came up with was an elaborate splicing of a Tamagotchi and Eyepet. Deriving good gameplay from a friendship poses more of a challenge than ‘see monster, end life.’

This trademark loss is just the latest in a turbulent development process. At the very least, this news may provoke an official announcement and provide some closure for us all/ me.