Casting Shadows In A Metal Colossus

I’d wager no one expected the next game from Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, would center on giant robots and guns. But after waiting 10 years since the release of Ueda’s studio, GenDesign’s, last game and following a cryptic debut of what was then known as Project Robot at the 2024 Game Awards, a full reveal gave us just that during this year’s Summer Game Fest. This next project is formally christened as Gen Atlas, and after checking out the first gameplay footage, I met with Ueda during SGF to pick his brain about this surprising adventure.

After launching The Last Guardian in 2016, Ueda tells me GenDesign spent the next four years prototyping various ideas while shoring up talent and resources. Formal development of Gen Atlas began in 2020, so the project is currently in its sixth year. The team also inked a publishing deal with Epic Games, securing Gen Atlas as an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC; it’s also coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.