genDESIGN has shared ICO early prototype footage in celebration of the game’s 20th anniversary, which is today – December 6th.

“This is an early development video of ICO for PlayStation 2, which was released for PlayStation 2 on December 6, 2001,” genDESIGN said in the post. “It was made around 1998 to share the image of the work with the development team. The staff, including Ueda, had no idea what kind of game ICO would be. When we were groping in the dark, this image brought us to the light. This video was a breakthrough for the team. There are some flaws in the video and sound, such as scanning lines and noise, as well as debugging indications. However, we have not made any corrections or edits so that you can feel the atmosphere of that time.”

ICO was originally released for PlayStation 2. It has since been re-released for PlayStation 3 via The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection. GenDESIGN is a new studio made up for former Team ICO and Sony Japan Studio staff, including ICO director Fumito Ueda.

Here’s the ICO early prototype video:

I personally never really got into ICO but I definitely thoroughly enjoyed their grander and bolder follow-up, Shadow of the Colossus. While the former was basically figuring out what art style and type of gameplay Team ICO wanted to pursue, Shadow of the Colossus really took things up a notch and totally blew me away at the time. Plus, it featured an outstanding soundtrack by none other than Kow Otani, the famed composer behind cult classics like Outlaw Star.