Fumito Ueda (上田 文人) is a Japanese video game designer.
1977
He was also influenced by the work of Kenji Eno, and the manga series Galaxy Express 999 (1977–1981).
Ueda's games are considered to have a distinctive style, which Ueda himself describes as "design by subtraction", with sparse landscapes, oversaturated lighting and minimalist story to give his games a personal and distinctive feel.
Ueda also said that, in video games, ideas for a gameplay mechanic should be made first, then complemented by a game's story.
1993
Born in Tatsuno, Ueda graduated from the Osaka University of Arts in 1993.
1995
In 1995, after trying to make a living as a visual artist, Ueda decided to pursue a career in the video game industry.
He joined the developer WARP and worked as an animator on the game Enemy Zero for the Sega Saturn under the director Kenji Eno.
He described his time there as "arduous", as the game was behind schedule and everyone on the project had to work more than normal to meet the release deadline.
Eno, who also owned the company, did not think he was that great a digital artist, but handpicked Ueda because of his talent with concepts and design.
Ueda worked at WARP for a year and a half.
1997
In 1997, Ueda joined Sony Computer Entertainment as a first-party developer.
In Sony Computer Entertainment's Japan Studio, he began work on Ico.
After Ico, Ueda and his small team, better known as Team Ico, started work on Shadow of the Colossus.
2001
Ueda is best known as the director and lead designer of Ico (2001) and Shadow of the Colossus (2005) while leading Team Ico at Japan Studio, and The Last Guardian (2016) through his own development company GenDesign.
His games have achieved cult status and are distinguished by their usage of minimal plot and scenario using fictional languages, and use of overexposed, desaturated light.
He has been described by some as an auteur of video games.
2007
In February 2007, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu reported that Ueda and his team were working on a game for the PlayStation 3.
No details about the unnamed title were revealed.
2008
In 2008, in the August edition of PlayStation Magazine, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida commented that both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus took 4 years to develop as a hint that the game was under production, but was not close to release.
In 2008, IGN ranked Ueda as one of their top 100 game creators of all time, saying that his knack for "creating atmospheric puzzle playgrounds with mute or near-mute characters instills a sense of isolation, yet provides an endearing feeling of hope as the protagonists seek simply to find an exodus or redemption from their weather-worn, ornate prisons".
2009
The game was revealed at E3 2009 as The Last Guardian, the trailer for which suggests a saga involving elements of both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus wherein a young boy resembling Ico partners up with a colossus-sized companion to complete puzzles.
Ueda later confirmed The Last Guardian to be related to the two previous installments.
In an interview with G4tv.com in 2009 he expressed admiration for the method of cut-scene story-telling in Valve's Half-Life 2, and when questioned directly expressed an interest in making a first person game.
2011
Ueda left Sony in December 2011, although he remained under contract to finish work on The Last Guardian.
2014
Around mid-2014, he formed GenDesign (stylized as genDESIGN), made up of former members from Team Ico to help complete development of The Last Guardian.
2016
At E3 2015, The Last Guardian was announced for release on October 25, 2016, but was later delayed to December 6, 2016.
2018
In September 2018, Ueda revealed that the studio was at the prototyping stage of designing a new game, supported with funding from the investment fund Kowloon Nights.
2020
In March 2020, Epic Games announced that they would be fully funding development, with the two companies splitting profits in half.
In 2021, the new game was teased in one of GenDesign's New Year post cards, which features screenshots from Ueda's three previous games and an unidentified screenshot of a person under a mechanical structure, which is thought to be from the new game.
He described himself as a very inquisitive child saying "I enjoyed catching and keeping living things, such as fish or birds. Other than that, I liked both watching and making animation. Basically, I seemed to be interested in things that moved."
Among his favorite subjects in school was art.
He commented, "If I was not in the games industry, I would want to become a classical artist. Though I regard not only games but also anything that expresses something – be it films, novels or manga – as forms of art."
Ueda played many Sega Mega Drive games, which influenced his work.
He was also a fan of the Amiga computer platform games Flashback and Another World during his teen years.
Other games that influenced his work include The Legend of Zelda, Virtua Fighter, and Prince of Persia.
