Despite rumours to the contrary, The Last Guardian is still in development. We think.

The Worldwide Studios executive spent the best part of the night clearing up rumours that suggested Team ICO's troubled title, The Last Guardian, had been cancelled. It hasn't — but there's definitely some confusion over the matter.

Rumours hit overdrive when customers holding pre-orders for the anticipated PlayStation 3 exclusive received calls from the retailer containing the news. Fuelling the flames, the title simultaneously vanished from GameStop's website.

Considering the number of departures at developer Team ICO recently, it's hardly surprising that the media jumped on the rumour like a pack of wolves.

But Sony spokesperson Patrick Seybold promptly responded to the claims, telling Joystiq that rumours of the game's cancellation are "not true". Shuhei Yoshida also commented on the matter, labelling GameStop's assertions as "false".

We believe the word of Sony's employees better than we do GameStop's, but clearly things are not right over at Team ICO right now. Sony really needs to steady the ship by releasing a batch of new details about the game in the new year. That is, if it really isn't cancelled.