Happy 7th birthday, thatgamecompany! What an incredible year it’s been, full of many wonderful reasons to celebrate. Here’s a recap of how far we’ve come since our last birthday:

Thanks to the many players who continue to pour out their support, keeping us inspired through their letters, music, art, and cosplay costumes. The response to Journey continues to overwhelm us, and we feel so lucky to have so many players touched by our work.

Journey has been recognized with over 120 industry honors in categories spanning Audio, Design, Innovation, Art, Online Multiplayer, and more. Of those, Journey earned 33 awards for Overall Game of the Year among games in all genres and platforms.

More reasons for celebrating this past year: 

Having called PSN home since the beginning, thatgamecompany took a big step with it’s first physical release in the form of the Journey OST CD and Journey Collector’s Edition Blu-ray in 2012, with a physical European release pending. In addition, Journey’s  soundtrack became the highest ranking original game soundtrack on the Billboard Hot 200 when it was released digitally and garnered a Grammy nomination – a first for games.

Together with Bluecanvas and Sony Santa Monica, an art book titled The Art of Journey came out featuring its very own Augmented Reality app to make the world of Journey come to life from the pages of this book.

Benchmark Capital helped us go fully independent, and we’re now able to self-publish with a game that can go cross platform.

We’re at 14 people, and growing!  (Interested in joining us?)

We should probably say that the new game is still a while out, but that we’re extremely thankful to all the fans who are still playing our games and connecting with us on the forums, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

In case you haven’t noticed, we have some new products up on our store, and now we’re opening pre-orders for the Koko/Glyph shirt again.

First up, we have a brand new Quadrilogy shirt designed by That Art Director Jacky:

Second, we have these art cards designed by Red Corner:

Finally, we’ve decided to have a reprint of the Koko/Glyph shirt.  If this run sells well enough, we’ll continue to print up more of this shirt:

Click “Read More” to see some more information on the store.

flOw, Flower, and Journey Scarves, Posters, Hoodies, Shirts:  There are currently no plans to make licensed scarves, posters, hoodies, shirts, etc.

Journey Collector’s Edition:  We are getting small numbers in stock every couple months.  You can order them from here: http://store.thatgamecompany.com/en/7-games

Koko/Glyph Shirt in Red:  The Koko/Glyph shirt will only be available in slate grey.

Journey Soundtrack CD:  We are going to try to always have at least some in stock.  You can order them here: http://store.thatgamecompany.com/en/11-cds

The Art of Journey Book:  We’ve sold out of the art books that we had in stock, but you can get them on Amazon with Free Shipping in the U.S. and $8 for international shipping.   Here’s the link:  http://bit.ly/JourneyArtBook

Signed Products:  Even though we love all of our fans, signing merchandise takes a long time.  We’ll definitely have signed merchandise in the future, but you’ll have to keep checking back on our store, Facebook, and Twitter to see when we offer signed products again.

Good news, everyone!

The Art of Journey is finally up for pre-order at Bluecanvas!  The first 750 orders get copies that are signed by both Jenova Chen and Matt Nava!  Signed copies are still available, but they’ll likely run out quickly.

You can pre-order them at this link:

http://bit.ly/JourneyArtBookExclusive

EDIT:
The book is no longer available for signed pre-orders, but you can buy a standard copy with much cheaper shipping from Amazon right here:
http://bit.ly/JourneyArtBook

Click the “Read more” link to see some pictures of the book.

Pictures via Bluecanvas’ Facebook Page Album

And, yes, we are working on getting it in our store, but nothing is set as of yet.

The book costs $60 with free shipping to the Contiguous U.S., $25 to Canada and Mexico, and $40 everywhere else.  (Well, except for Iran, North Korea, and Cuba, that is.)

Nice design, eh? The above booklet features a nice backstory for all of our games.

From the moment a thatgamecompany anthology was first discussed, to later down the line when I was brought into the equation to work along with the team and Sony Santa Monica as we put together this amazing package of content – every one of us has anticipated the day when our great effort and care would translate into something any one of us could hold in our hands.

My colleague Asher and I made a special trip to our local game store to make our day one purchase!

Today is that day, and we couldn’t be more pleased with how our first disc title has come together. We hope the same holds true for everyone who picks up a copy of the Journey Collector’s Edition.

For any of you fortunate enough to be attending PAX Prime in Seattle, WA, this weekend, keep a lookout for me in my bright new TGC shirt (pictured below, far right)! Please be sure to come over and say hi and pick up a TGC sticker from me, too!

We had a blast racking up points in Gravediggers, one of our mini-games in the disc collection.

It’s been a great day, and we’re absolutely thrilled to keep at it so we can create even more games that will respect, entertain, and engage players in new, meaningful, and positive ways.

To cap off this post, let me leave you with the Journey Collector’s Edition Official Trailer Video:

Seeing how Journey has resonated with players across the world, we wanted to work with the Santa Monica Studio to provide a deeper look into the visual development behind this critically acclaimed hit. So, we’re excited to let everyone know that we will be presenting you with a wonderful first-time look at the extensive artwork that went into bringing Journey to life. It’s the first book directly inspired by one of our games and is titled The Art of Journey and will be available for purchase in September.

This book, designed and written by Matt Nava, art director on Journey, provides an insider’s view into the stylistic influences, narrative functions, and game design goals that shaped the final look of the game. Readers will discover how Journey’s landscapes, cut-scenes, and much-loved robed traveler came to be. For your enjoyment, The Art of Journey will come bound as an embossed hardcover book filled with gorgeous concept art, intricate pencil drawings, and 3D models printed in full color on art-quality paper.

In addition, the book has an innovative “augmented reality” feature powered by the Daqri 4D platform. By downloading a free companion app, readers will be able to point their smartphone or tablet’s camera at special images and see animated 3D models appear straight from the game. It’s a truly unique and innovative way to more fully experience the artwork of Journey.

We are especially proud to include a tribute in the book to the game’s players. Journey’s touching experience and memorable visuals have inspired many players to create their own artwork. Matt has collected some of the team’s favorites in a special fan art section which I hope will speak to those of you who have been moved by the Journey experience.

The Art of Journey will be accompanied by a voucher that will allow readers to download a free copy of the game’s soundtrack to their PS3.

Please continue to stay tuned for updates and sneak peeks for The Art of Journey. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out the Journey Collector’s Edition, which will be available on store shelves this coming Tuesday, August 28.

It’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad to make the formal announcement today!

We currently don’t have licensing from Sony to sell flOw, Flower, and Journey merchandise, but for now you can buy official thatgamecompany merch for the first time!  We’ll add more products as time goes by, so keep an eye out on the store or our Facebook and Twitter pages, or our Forums, to see when we add more products.

We only have one product available at this time, but we are also including some awesome bonuses with every shirt order! (Click the “More” button to see the bonuses.)

The store is owned by thatgamecompany and operated by thatgamecompany’s Community Manager, Aaron Grommesh (the guy who wrote this post).

So, here’s our first shirt design and the early ordering bonuses:

For a limited time, all orders will get a set of flOw, Flower, and Journey cards (Journey card is signed), and five buttons.  After that period, the shirt orders will only receive some buttons.

From the simplicity of flOw, to the poetry of Flower, to the awe of Journey, this special Blu-ray bundle features thatgamecompany’s three award-winning PlayStation Network-exclusive titles, paired with exclusive new content and previously released digital content.

The complete set of bonus flOw, Flower, and Journey content includes:

+30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Journey
+Creator Commentary play-throughs of all three games
+Three exclusive mini-games from thatgamecompany
+Concept art and screenshot galleries for all three games
+Original soundtracks for all three games
+PS3 dynamic themes and wallpapers
+PSN avatars including 8 exclusive new Journey avatars never released before
+Official game trailers and developer diary videos
+Reversible cover art
+One month trial subscription of PlayStation Plus

We are particularly excited about the Creator Commentary play-throughs of all three games, because we get to share with players insights about flOw, Flower, and Journey straight from the minds of the designers, artists, engineers and composers who worked together to make these games so special.

Another great feature included on the disc are the three exclusive mini-games born out of a thatgamecompany tradition: the 24hr Game Jam. As the name implies, each game was created by us, start to finish, in 24 hours. So for the first time ever, thatgamecompany’s mini-games, Gravediggers, Duke War!!, and Nostril Shot, will be available to play outside of our studio.

We share these mini-games as a “thank you” to our players for supporting us over the years. In case the names didn’t already give it away, these mini-games showcase thatgamecompany’s lighter side with madcap competitive multiplayer action. We hope you sincerely enjoy their silliness as much as we have.

In the meantime, please check out the official trailer for thatgamecompany’s first Blu-ray disc release, hitting stores on August 28 and currently available for pre-order on Amazon and GameStop.

Since then we have been very fortunate to have brought our players flOw, Flower and Journey through our three-game partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment America, Santa Monica Studio. We are extremely grateful to Sony and the many players who put their faith in us. Their support has turned Journey into the fastest selling title in PSN history.

Many of you have asked what’s coming up next for TGC and whether our games can be played on other platforms. I have good news for you.

Today I am pleased to announce thatgamecompany has raised funding to develop and release our games independently. This enables us to bring our games to more platforms and provide our players the highest quality experience at every point of contact.

Making this possible is Mitch Lasky from Benchmark Capital. Together we share a vision for bringing emotionally compelling interactive entertainment to players worldwide.

We are very excited about our new adventure. Please stay tuned, as we look forward to sharing with you more details about our next game soon.

So, yeah! This week only,  flOw and Flower are both on sale for 30% off for everyone in North America, and 50% off for PS+ subscribers in North America.  The sale also includes most of the other content related to flOw and Flower, such as the flOw expansion pack, Flower avatars, and a dynamic theme.

Also, we made a Journey demo!  It’s short and doesn’t have multiplayer, so you’ll have to buy the whole game in order to experience multiplayer.  Still, you can surf around in the happy sand land for as long as you want, or until you do want to buy the full game.

Check out the prices of everything after the break.

North American users only:  (Everyone | PS+ Subscribers)

• flOw: $5.69 | $3.91
• flOw Expansion Bundle: $6.29 | $4.40
• flOw Expansion Pack: $2.09 | $1.46
• flOw PSP: $5.69 | $3.91
• Flower: $6.99 | $4.89
• Flower Music & Theme Bundle: $2.49 | $1.25
• Flower Avatar Bundle 1: 75¢ | 38¢
• Flower Avatar Bundle 2: 75¢ | 38¢
• Flower Dynamic Theme: $1.49 | 75¢

The Journey demo should be out in Europe, Japan, and the Asian territories later this week.

 
Diamante followed up with “TGC is in a really neat place: so familiar in terms of people and processes and emotions, but still very different from where the video game industry was the last time I teamed up with them. It should be a great ride.”