{"id":64500,"date":"2026-06-28T20:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=64500"},"modified":"2026-06-28T20:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:17:12","slug":"fumito-ueda-is-rethinking-the-companion-relationship-that-defined-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=64500","title":{"rendered":"Fumito Ueda is Rethinking The Companion Relationship That Defined His Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First revealed a year and a half ago at 2024&#8217;s The Game Awards as Project Robot, Fumito Ueda\u2019s new game broke cover at Summer Game Fest earlier this month with new details (it has guns?), a new name (Gen Atlas), and some face time with its renowned creator. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ueda is one of gaming\u2019s true auteurs, having directed three of the medium\u2019s most beloved, singular games: Ico (2001), Shadow of the Colossus (2005), and The Last Guardian (2016), each produced for PlayStation consoles. The first two were developed under Ueda\u2019s Team Ico banner inside Sony while The Last Guardian took a more complicated route to release, with Ueda directing inside Sony, then as a contractor, and then as the lead of his own independent studio, GenDesign. Now, a decade after the release of his last game, Ueda and GenDesign are back with a new publisher, a new game, and maybe a new outlook on game development. GameSpot spoke with him inside Epic Games\u2019 booth at Summer Game Fest earlier this month. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We started, where else, by asking Ueda about the scene that literally elicited gasps from the crowd when it was revealed in the trailer: The protagonist uses guns.<\/p>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803645\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gen_atlas_guns.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803645\" \/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps unsurprisingly for a game codenamed Project Robot, the project \u201cstarted with giant robots at its core, and then slowly but surely, we started world building,\u201d Ueda tells GameSpot. \u201cOnce we got into this phase of, okay, this is going to be a sci-fi universe, I think it&#8217;s not unnatural to have guns, other weapons and to have shooting in action. And so as a gameplay experience, I think it&#8217;s somewhat maybe even expected when you hear a sci-fi action adventure game that you&#8217;re going to be able to wield a weapon and do some shooting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Ueda followed this up by declaratively stating, &#8220;This is not a shooting game,&#8221; he did suggest that some of the logic for equipping the player character with a weapon was born of player frustration from his earlier games. \u201cFor example, The Last Guardian, the player character didn&#8217;t really have a weapon,\u201d Ueda explains. \u201cAnd so I think that also created a little bit of frustration as a player character. And so in order to sort of lessen the frustration or kind of soften that frustration, there was thought that went into this in terms of what are some of the tactics that the player character can use. And shooting is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"gen ATLAS - Official Reveal Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/64Q-WAFpRfo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Ueda\u2019s previous games, the player character had a companion that was alive, albeit unable to directly communicate. In Ico it was Yorda, a princess whose language you couldn\u2019t understand; in Shadow of the Colossus, it was your horse Agro who obeyed your commands (\u201cAgro!\u201d) but obviously couldn\u2019t communicate back; and lastly in The Last Guardian, the impossibly charming Trico, a giant bird dog cat thing whose unspoken partnership is the actual thesis of the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each of these games had a sort of fantasy theme to them, as barren as the narratives may be, so the shift to science fiction and big robots (and their detached heads) raises questions about that companion relationship central to his games. \u201cThe robot head is going to have different roles and functions,\u201d Ueda says. \u201cI can say that it could be at times a vehicle for your transportation. At times it will be your navigator. At times it can be a tool as just a functionality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If that sounds somewhat familiar to the basic companion structure of his previous games, Ueda clarified that the \u201ckind of relationship that the main character is going to establish and build throughout the game [is not] necessarily the same kind of \u2018you need to protect your companion or you are being protected.\u2019 It&#8217;s a little different from what you&#8217;ve seen in my past games.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ueda says that his previous games omitted direct communication between the player character and the companion because that was the reality of the game\u2019s fiction (ie: horses can\u2019t talk). But also having direct communication \u201ckind of ends that conversation maybe by a line or by the next command or if the character says, \u2018Oh, go to the north and to the woods and you can find this,\u2019\u201d Ueda explains. In keeping with that sense of \u201cwhat is real in this setting, in this world, and the relationship that I am continuing to grow\u201d with a companion, Ueda says that Gen Atlas\u2019s player character and robot head companion will have some communication, in part owing to its sci-fi setting. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a situation where you can&#8217;t have communication,\u201d he says. \u201cYou will. It&#8217;s not going to be maybe as blatantly direct, but you will actually be able to have some level of communication.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are some very fundamental setting differences such as going into the sci-fi world that has allowed me to make some different decisions and adjustments between how your character and companion used to communicate in my past games versus this one,\u201d Ueda says. \u201cSo you&#8217;ll probably be able to notice those differences and why they&#8217;re happening and it&#8217;s probably thanks to the setting that it&#8217;s in sci-fi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The switch to sci-fi is perhaps not even the biggest change for Ueda in Gen Atlas; it\u2019s also his first time developing a game for a multiplatform release, and inside of an off-the-shelf game engine (in this case, publisher Epic Games\u2019 ubiquitous Unreal Engine). When asked if the access to a more powerful game engine and a multiplatform target has changed how he approaches development, Ueda was ambivalent. \u201cMaybe there are challenges that [\u2026] haven&#8217;t crept up yet for me because it hasn&#8217;t been such a huge challenge. The one biggest difference for me though, is that all my previous games we had our own engine that we worked off of and Gen Atlas is built on Unreal. And so perhaps if I look at just the large subject of reporting on different consoles, yes, there are things that are different. But in a sense it hasn&#8217;t really greatly [\u2026] changed anything that I&#8217;ve had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-7 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803630\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_4K_Screenshot_gameplay003_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803630\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803632\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803632\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_4K_Screenshot_gameplay004_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803632\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803633\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803633\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_4K_Screenshot_gameplay007_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803633\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803631\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803631\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_4K_Screenshot_gameplay010_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803631\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803635\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803635\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_4K_Screenshot_trailer009_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803635\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803628\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803628\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_1080_Screenshot_gameplay003_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803628\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803634\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803634\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_1080_Screenshot_gameplay004_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803634\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803636\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803636\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_1080_Screenshot_gameplay007_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803636\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803637\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803637\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_1080_Screenshot_gameplay010_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803637\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803629\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"576\" width=\"1024\" data-id=\"1803629\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PROJECT_ROBOT_260601_1080_Screenshot_trailer009_01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803629\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-game-development-as-furoshiki\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Game development as furoshiki<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked if the technological constraints of his previous games contributed to his creative process at all\u2013Shadow of the Colossus famously pushed the PlayStation 2 hardware to its limits\u2013and whether the freedom to not worry about those constraints in the same way would impact his design, he was more contemplative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen we talk about technology and limitations, we are making video games at the end of the day. So we&#8217;re talking about platforms that have existed from 30 years ago to today and it does seem like it is limitless, but I think there&#8217;s still some limitation,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Japan, there&#8217;s a culture of furoshiki. It&#8217;s the wrapper. It&#8217;s literally like a piece of cloth that you open up and then you close. But when you close it, it needs to be wrapped very nicely and essentially [it has a] souvenir, it&#8217;s gifting, right? And so there is the expression in business and any sort of structure in Japan that you open up the furoshiki to put in any idea you want, but at the end of the day, at the end of the entire process, you have to wrap the furoshiki. But how you wrap it, what&#8217;s inside, how it&#8217;s balanced, is it cohesive? Is it lined up? Are all the pieces lined up perfectly? That&#8217;s what matters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo in that sense, I think that there are still some limitations when it comes to perfecting that skill, perfecting it and wrapping it in a nicely neatly bowtied package by the time you deliver it to the world, that&#8217;s where it matters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1803653\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"768\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gen_atlas_sgf_head.jpeg?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803653\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Epic&#8217;s SGF booth had a giant Gen Atlas robot head staged out front (not pictured: A steady stream of visitors climbing the steps in the back to have their picture taken). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly, for a now-independent game developer shipping a major title with new partners, Ueda\u2019s concept of furoshiki didn\u2019t stop with design, but extended to the managerial requirements of running a large game studio working on a AAA game. \u201cWhen you think about what\u2019s inside, it&#8217;s do you have the right human resources?\u201d Ueda says. \u201cDo you have not just the right human resources, but the right human resources with the right skill that can make that perfect piece of puzzle and do you have the right financial backing for it? Do you have the right support for it? So if you take all that into consideration, I do think that there&#8217;s still some limitations. [\u2026] Yes, the hardware technology has advanced to a point where we think it&#8217;s so superior and limitless, but I think what matters is how you approach the process of making it within the limitations that still currently exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gen Atlas will be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PCs (where it will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store). It does not yet have a release date.<\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/fumito-ueda-gen-atlas-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First revealed a year and a half ago at 2024&#8217;s The Game Awards as Project Robot, Fumito Ueda\u2019s new game broke cover at Summer Game&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4134,6367,13775,25577,2745,16661,25578],"class_list":["post-64500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-career","tag-companion","tag-defined","tag-fumito","tag-relationship","tag-rethinking","tag-ueda","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}