Sly Cooper Thieves in Time is real. You know that from the news out of PlayStation's E3 2011 Press Conference, but that was just a trailer of what's to come. I've seen the full E3 demo. I can tell you it looks good -- really good -- but I couldn't help myself from asking questions about the developer when I was watching the game. Namely, "Who the hell is Sanzaru Games?"

The answer is simple. Sanzaru is a San Francisco Bay Area developer that noticed one its favorite franchises wasn't getting a fourth installment and thought that sucked. Still, I'm getting ahead of myself. Years ago, some folks broke away from Activision and created Sanzaru. The developer made Ninja Reflex for the Wii and DS and moved on to porting Secret Agent Clank to the PS2. But when Clank was about done, these folks decided it was time to do something they loved.

They ponied up the cash for a PlayStation 3 development kit and sat down to create a Sly Cooper demo. From scratch. With no assets from Sucker Punch -- the developer that created the franchise but had since moved on to Infamous -- Sanzaru went to work on their version of the "Thievius Racconus."

In a month, Sanzaru created a playable demo of what it though Sly in HD should be. Sony agreed with the vision and -- perhaps more importantly -- so did Sucker Punch. That led to Sanzaru porting the original PS2 games to the PS3's Sly Collection while working on what would go on to become Sly Cooper Thieves in Time.

When I heard the guys behind Sanzaru talk about their game, it was clear how much they care about this franchise. They had nothing but glowing things to say about Sucker Punch and its three Sly games, but at the same time, they were full of ideas on how to make Sly relevant again. They kept the idea of starting fresh -- they're not reusing code from the games they ported but instead are learning techniques from it. They're intent on "staying true to the spirit" of the original games, and from the two levels I saw, I think they're on track -- this looks like what you'd expect a new Sly to look like on the PS3, and its packing familiar faces, too. It's super-slick and expands on the ideas we all associate with the franchise.

It sucks, but that's all I can tell you right now. At least the important stuff is known -- you know that Sly Cooper Thieves in Time is real, you know the story of Sanzaru Games, and you know that this game looks good. I can't wait to tell you about it this Tuesday.