Producer Kenji Kaido announced on Twitter on Monday that he has retired from Sony Computer Entertainment. Kaido joined Sony back in the late ‘90s, with his first gig working as a designer on Ape Escape, but he rose to prominence as Fumito Ueda’s partner in Team Ico, acting as producer on both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. While Ueda is credited with fostering those games’ distinctive ephemeral style, it was Kaido who was instrumental in convincing Sony to give the team the time needed to reach their high level of quality.
What’s next? “My plans for the future are undecided for now, but for the time being I’m going to continue my summer vacation,” said Kaido. A good plan.
As for how this might effect Team Ico’s next game The Last Guardian, it’s unknown. Only a select few Sony employees have ever even discussed the game publicly. Beyond director Fumito Ueda, Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida, and SCEA head Jack Tretton, no one on the inside has publicly talked about the game.
The Last Guardian is still in production, whomever might be producing. Sony swears that the Ueda directed follow up to Colossus and ICO is still in production, some 3 years after it was officially announced (and a rumored 6 years after it went into production.)
