Journey is one of the PS3′s best gaming experiences. For me at least, it’s flawless, breathtakingly beautiful and represents everything that I want gaming to be, rather than this homogenised nonsense that most publishers pump out on an annual basis.
And now creators thatgamecompany have broken free of Sony’s three-game deal, and – with the help of a hefty chunk of cash – officially gone multiformat.
In his latest blog studio head Jenova Chen, the visionary behind the three games currently only available on the PlayStation brand (fl0w, Flower and Journey) explains that Benchmark Capital are behind the investment – all $5.5 million worth of it.
“Today I am pleased to announce thatgamecompany has raised funding to develop and release our games independently,” he said. “This enables us to bring our games to more platforms and provide our players the highest quality experience at every point of contact.”
“We are extremely grateful to Sony and the many players who put their faith in us,” said Chen.
Whilst he remains at the helm of the six year old studio, others have left, but we’re hoping that the innovation and charm of their games can continue without them. I’ve met a few of the tgc crew, including Chen, and they’re all such warm, considered people.
I personally wish the company all the luck in the world.
Missed opportunity for Sony to add another studio to their publishing umbrella, but absolutely great news for gamers.
Indeed. If tgc made a game I didn’t have the console for, I’d buy one.
I guess it does seem a missed opportunity but perhaps tgc’s desire to go multi-platform was stronger than the lure of funding for another exclusive – i’m sure it would have meant exclusive if Sony were paying (or indeed Microsoft or Nintendo if it came to it).
At least Sony ensured that we got three of the most wonderful and unique gaming experiences ever! :)
with the Black Swan coming I would say Sony no what there doing.
So didn’t they buy or own Zipper? They closed that down, coulda bought this lot and kept them making unique exclusives…..!
Can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
As long as their future games are available on playstation, I’m good. I just hope they don’t move to browser based or mobile gaming.
£5.5 million doesn’t seem to high an investment, I wonder why Sony didn’t bite… Id love to see total sales revenue for flOw, Flower and Journey… if I had won last weeks euro millions I would have invested in that studio, I love everything they have pumped out.
You just got me daydreaming about investing in these guys…I think I’d happily use the whole £100million if necessary!
Especially if Journey was anything to go by, more games from TGC can only be a good thing. Can’t wait!
I can’t wait to hear about their next project. They deserve their success.
Hate their games but its still nice to see a small company get some success.
Journey for me was not flawless. At all. It was boring. It wasn’t a game. I know someone will respond with “you’re missing the point” or “you don’t get it” but I do. I understand they wanted to do something profound and clever but it was just pretentious. Any “game” I can tape the analogue stick forward and conplete it is not fun. I liked flower though. Still pretentious though. Not really interested in the next peoject from these guys.
I’m sort of with you, flOw was brilliant, flOwer, was a bit crap and uninteresting, so when it came to Journey, it was a solid no-buy.
LOL, you guys.
Completely agree, I can’t understand why people love it so much, but hey, it’s their opinions, and they’re entitled to them, but wondering around in a desert doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest.
Still, glad to see there’s still investors out there when all we hear about is studios getting shut down and staff laid off.
it’s only logical they’d want to branch out, so their titles can reach a wider audience.
and i wish them the best of luck with that, so long as they still support the ps3 as well. ^_^
i’m eager to find out what their next project will be.
i’d be interested in seeing how the studio does making a title with a stronger narrative element, to go along with high concept gameplay.