Ueda is working on gen ATLAS, an open-world action-adventure for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store, with Epic Games publishing. He confirmed at Summer Game Fest Play Days 2026 that its protagonist is a machine, not a human.
Ueda's work has moved from announcement to explanation. genDESIGN announced gen ATLAS during the Summer Game Fest 2026 livestream on June 6, presenting an open-world action-adventure on a forsaken planet where the player awakens without knowing why and encounters a giant robot whose power opens routes to unreachable areas. The trailer showed robot-versus-robot battles and small figures running across giant machines to find weak points. The game is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store, with Epic Games publishing. No release date or price has been announced.
A teaser had appeared as a work-in-progress at The Game Awards 2024 under the working title Project Robot. A week later, at Summer Game Fest Play Days 2026, Ueda said the protagonist is a machine rather than a human, set after humanity's disappearance in a mechanical civilization, and that the project began with the idea of making a game about giant robots.
Between those stories and the Tokyo talks, Ueda has been discussing method in public. He spoke with Eric Chahi at The Tenth Mosaic, held September 22 and 23 at the Institut francais du Japon in Tokyo. Ueda said he first played the Super Famicom version of Another World at a friend's house during his university years and took from it the idea that a world can exist for its own sake. He said the holding-hands action in ICO came from pushing the protagonist-alien relationship in Another World to its logical conclusion, and that removing words would have been too frightening without it. Chahi said he played ICO around 2000 after a recommendation following Heart of Darkness. Ueda also cited the shadows in Heart of Darkness as an influence.
A July conversation with Goichi Suda, published by Automaton, covered hands-on development detail, including Suda's QA work on ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN and Ueda's note on Suda's skill at adjusting frame timing and enemy placement.
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Fumito Ueda and Eric Chahi appeared together at THE TENTH MOSAIC, a game event held September 23 at the Institut francais du Japon in Tokyo. The talk covered how games convey emotion without words; Chahi's Another World is cited as one of the works that shaped Ueda's approach. The event framed games as the "tenth art" and treated them as expression rather than business alone.
Eric Chahi, creator of Another World, visited Japan for the first time in 13 years for The Tenth Mosaic, a game culture festival organized by Alcypel, held at the Institut francais de Tokyo. He brought production materials from the game: pixel art on graph paper, the cover drawing, handwritten notebooks of code, and the equipment used for rotoscope filming. Another World released in 1991 for the Amiga 500 and Atari ST, and in Japan in 1992 for the Super Famicom as Outer World.
At The Tenth Mosaic, held at the Institut francais de Tokyo on September 22 and 23, Eric Chahi and Fumito Ueda spoke on September 23. Ueda said he first played the Super Famicom version of Chahi's Another World as a university student and cleared it with a friend's help, taking from it the idea that it is okay to make a world for the world's sake rather than a world for the game. Chahi said a colleague urged him to play ICO after Heart of Darkness. Both described their words-free style as something they had no choice but to do.
Eric Chahi, known for Another World and Heart of Darkness, and Fumito Ueda, known for ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, held a talk session at The Tenth Mosaic at the Institut francais du Japon in Tokyo. The two-day event ran September 22 and 23, 2026, and the conversation took place on the second day. Ueda said he first played the Super Famicom version of Another World at a friend's house during his university years. Chahi said he played ICO around 2000 after being recommended it following work on Heart of Darkness. The two traded questions about influence, with Ueda acknowledging that the shadows in Heart of Darkness informed his work and Chahi asking whether the bond between Ico and Yorda drew from the relationship between Lester and the alien in Another World. The talk also covered technical constraints, testing games as a player rather than a designer, and the use of gesture in place of dialogue.
Automaton published a two-hour conversation between Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi Suda and game designer Fumito Ueda, held at a Japanese pub on a rainy spring evening. Suda discussed his hands-on QA work on the new IP ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN, including last-minute bug fixes and tuning that frustrated his team. Ueda noted Suda's skill at adjusting sensory details like frame timing and enemy placement.
In an interview at Summer Game Fest Play Days 2026, Fumito Ueda revealed that the player character in genDESIGN's upcoming title 'gen ATLAS' is a machine, not a human. The game is set after humanity's disappearance in a mechanical civilization. Ueda also explained the title's meaning and confirmed the project began with the idea of making a game about giant robots.
Fumito Ueda's studio genDESIGN officially announced its next title, gen ATLAS, during the Summer Game Fest 2026 livestream on June 6. The game is an open-world action-adventure set on a forsaken planet where players awaken without knowing why. The world is dotted with massive structures, abandoned facilities, and a changing sea, all traces of a lost civilization. Players encounter a giant robot whose power opens paths to previously unreachable areas. The trailer showed robot-versus-robot battles and small combatants running across the giant machines to find weak points, a mechanic that multiple sources compared to Shadow of the Colossus. gen ATLAS is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store, with Epic Games handling publishing. A teaser had appeared as a work-in-progress at The Game Awards 2024 under the working title Project Robot. No release date or price has been announced.