Shadow of the Colossus Director Reveals Why He Got Into Making Games

Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian are regarded as heartfelt and inspired games, being held as an example of videogames transcending their medium and being comparable to art. With that in mind, it may be surprising to learn that their director Fumito Ueda originally got into videogames as a way to make money.

Speaking at the Reboot Develop conference today in Europe through a translator, Ueda admitted to only using game development as a means to make money early on, as he worked on his true passion of creating art. The unique style of Ueda’s games may be attributable to his primary interest in art.

Translator Ben Judd stated “Ueda-san himself never planned to be in games. He liked playing games as a young man but he planned to be in the art world. When he graduated from college, from university, he said ‘I don’t know if that’s going to pay. I don’t know if that’s a realistic dream to have, doing art’. In his mind, he was constantly thinking ‘I’ll only be in the game industry for a few years’.”

In January 2018, Ueda’s studio Gen Design posted a teaser image on their website with the source code reading “Beauty and the Beast”. It seems likely that this new project is well underway. We can only hope that it doesn’t take as many years to release as The Last Guardian.