Team Ico's majestic third game, The Last Guardian, has been looking full of nothing but fantastical promise since its unveiling in 2009. It features a giant griffin-like creature, that also appears to be young, as well as a child, in stunningly crafted world of ancient ruins and overgrowth. It reeked of the same art-direction and narrative nuance of the studio's first two games, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but with a greater sense of design maturity and the PS3's horsepower to boot.

It dropped well and truly off the radar though, and was non-existent at last year's E3 and TGS, leaving us to believe something was amiss with the title, an idea that made us cry a little inside.

Now, thanks to an interview over at Wired, the game is back on the PS3 release agenda with Sony Worldwide Studios boss, Shuhei Yoshida, confirming that the game is still very much in development and that despite rumours to the contrary, the game's visionary director, Fumito Ueda, was still at its helm.

"First, let me set some facts straight. There was a rumour that Ueda had left the company, which we confirmed," he told Wird. "But it’s not like he left the making of The Last Guardian. He’s on top of the game and coming into the office. He could be the person who’s in the office for the longest time. The difference is that he used to be a regular employee. But now we have a contract to define his role. It’s a very special contribution and role that he plays and we agreed, let’s make it more official, more special. That’s the only difference."

He also confirmed that Sony has roped in members from various in-house teams in the US and Europe to help the ailing project get across the completion line.

"Well, you know, it’s not just Santa Monica," he revealed. "We have great tech people in Worldwide Studios. We have a central tech group in the US and the UK so we are giving them whatever help they need. Technically, we have the best engineers in the U.S. and Europe, so these teams are helping them, giving advice."

As far as a release window though, Yoshida was quick to assert they're not quite where the game needs to be, saying that "now it’s making progress, but still not to the level — it’s playable, but not to the point that we can talk about the timing of launch".

Either way, if we don't see something of the game at this year's E3, Gamescom or TGS, I might explode. Watch a video of the game from 2010 embbedded below.