Shadow of the Colossus to be Re-Released?

According to Japanese retailers, cult PS2 hit Shadow of the Colossus may be seeing a re-release next February as Sony gears up for the release of The Last Guardian.

Fumito Ueda and his Team Ico have been responsible for two of the most beloved games of the last generation: Though 2001’s Ico and 2005’s Shadow of the Colossus didn’t sell in the neighborhood of Modern Warfare 2 (or even Uncharted 2, for that matter) they were critically acclaimed and extremely well-received by the people who did play them – which is why expectations for Ueda’s third game The Last Guardian are so high.

It seems that Sony may be trying to capitalize on the love for the previous Team Ico games – specifically Shadow of the Colossus, which significantly outsold its predecessor – in promoting The Last Guardian. A poster at the Team Ico Gamers blog noted that “all major Japanese retailers” were listing Wanda and the Colossus (Best Edition) – that is, the Japanese title of SotC – for release on the PS2 on February 4th, 2010.

Said listing has been taken down from at least one of the sites, but it remains up on the other one. If true, it would stand to reason that Sony would be trying to drum up interest in Guardian by re-releasing the previous Ueda games so that gamers can remember how fantastic they were.

For the moment, this appears to be only in Japan – the game doesn’t even have a release date yet – but it stands to reason that the company might try something similar in the West. Given that Ico and Colossus were both released in the West before they hit shelves in their native Japan, I see no reason why Guardian wouldn’t follow suit. Besides, plenty of gamers never even played Colossus, so it’d be nice to give them another shot at it.

But you know what would be even better, Sony? Learn from your God of War division and give us a HD-remastered compilation of Ico and SotC on Blu-Ray. I’d pick that up in a heartbeat, no joke.