thatgamecompany was started in 2006 in response to the many heartfelt requests we received as students from players around the world. These players were looking for games that provided meaningful, enriching interactive experiences in a broadly accessible, artistically crafted way.
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.
Nils says
I am very pleased that you are able to continue forward on what you began, giving poetry and emotions to video games is priceless !
As a graphic artist and game designer I wish you all the best in this beautiful adventure !
CaveBo says
I have all 3 games on PS3 and am eagerly anticipating the next project! thatgecompany is giving the industry some truly remarkable games!
Knochenherz says
That is wonderfull to hear! I have flower and journey and I want to buy flow too. I love your games so much, because they are so different from all games, that i’ve ever played. I cant wait for your next game, and its wonderful to hear, that you get new help!
Marco says
Congratulations on your deal with Benchmark Capital and future success. I think the question these days is not really do I need a publisher or not as much as it should be what kind of publisher is right for you.
This is an excellent article that discusses this point better than I can here: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-04-17-why-publisher-2-0-is-m-i-a
Best of Luck
Flint Fandango says
Great news indeed! I´ve also played all your games, so I´m totally excited to see your next creation!
Your games are so wonderful and spirited, I´ve never seen anything comparable!
Walk the line, I really love your style!
Richard says
I love TGC’s work, thank you for making a compelling case that gaming is a legitimate medium for art. I have all of your PSN games, and even though your publishing relationship with Sony is ending, I hope I can keep seeing your titles optimized for the PS3.
Thanks for all your hard work,
Richard Ryan
Edgard Ortega says
What you guys do is inspiring and seriously blazes the trails for a revolution of what we consider “games” to be and the experience they deliver to us. Thank you so much
Darren Mac Nally says
I wish it was still a Playstation brand company.. Hope the quality doesnt dip because of this… I’m sure the amazing ideas wont. Keep supporting the motion control on PS3/PS4!
Petr says
Any chance that Flower and Journey will come to PC? I think on Steam you would have pretty big sales…
Geir says
Good luck on your next title. I really hope that you could optimize it for the PlayStation platform though, since the majority of your fanbase owns those platforms. Having everything multi-platform is damaging gaming today, with fewer and fewer titles optimizing the power of one console.
Joseph Unger says
Congratulations. Best of luck.
Permafry_42 says
I have played all 4 games from thatgamecompany. I’ve done a playthrough of Cloud and released the playthrough on youtube. I’ve gotten most of the trophies in flOw, all the trophies in Fl0wer, and I’m right now still working on getting all the trophies in Journey. Every game from your company has made me fall in love with them. I very much look forward to playing your future games, and thank you for all the wonderful games you’ve already made.
Also I agree with Petr; please in the future return to your PC roots and continue to release your games on PC in addition to sony platforms and/or whichever other platforms you choose. You don’t have to release to steam, but I think there are many gamers on steam that would appreciate a steam release. You could even release the game with the humble indie bundle if you did this, which would definitely raise awareness among ps gamers. No mater what you do though, you can be sure that I will get your game. I would even get a new platform if it meant i could play another of your game =D
Anonymous says
As someone who looks for the beauty in games, I was amazing and astounded when I came across thatgamecompany. I knew, just by the name, that I would love the works you’ve produced. My boyfriend showed me the wonders of Flower, and since then I’ve been hooked. Looking on to find other masterpieces, I came across Cloud. The playstyle was older and more buggy, but I loved the idea. Journey came, as an artistic experience of it’s own. There’s a story, but one that’s still open enough for thousands of interpretations. A seamless and unthought of multiplayer makes it all the more amazing. Thatgamecompany has only been getting better, and I loved it, but I was never able to explore my imagination as much as I wished. As a student, and an xbox/pc gamer, I relied on others. It hasn’t stopped me, but it’s a relief to hear of your progress. The recognition that you’ve deserved will take you great places. I look forward to the future.
orion_ngc1976 says
I started this wonderful journey of interacting with your games with Cloud and continued on through the three PS3 releases. It is hard to believe that each game has broadened horizons and pushed the limits of an artful gaming interaction, but you have always come through with amazing results. I am greatly anticipating what will come next. Wishing you the best of success in your next project.
Paul says
Congratulations TGC!
Take you’re time with your next game…NOT!!!
Can’t Wait!!! The World needs more games like yours!!
I wish you all continued success!
Evan says
Congratulations! Flower and Journey were the most memorable games I have ever played, I’m very pleased to see your ever-reaching success! Keep them coming, I was on pins and needles waiting for Journey to coume out!!
Takura says
You know, for some reason it’s hard for me to imagine a game better than Journey, although that might not necessarily be the main goal either. Well, I have all the faith in you! 🙂 I definitely can’t wait, the best of luck!
Burnes Hollyman says
Epic win! Congratulations to you! You are simply the best, brightest and boldest game company out there! We are happy you will get a greater audience but think all of us should deeply applaud Sony for their boldness, vision and risk in originally supporting and backing your amazing games when others did not take that creative risk. We look forward to all you make in the future and hope to see more on other platforms but hope you also stay true to Sony, the folks who brought you to all of us in the first place. Benchmark Capital has made a super-safe bet investing in you and you will return money to them many times over. In that regard, this was a “no brainer” deal but we also applaud Mitch Lasky for the insight and leadership he showed around this investment!
That Game Guy says
While I enjoyed your games on the PS3, I’m excited to see the new horizons you guys will reach with new platforms. I definitely think you guys should consider making a game built for the WiiU. Also would love to see some Steam love. Anyways thanks for your time and making some of the most awesome games out there.
Luiz Trindade says
Please, Bring Journey to Xbox 360. Its a great title that, unfortunately, lots of people did not enjoy because its on only one platform. It would be great experience for all Xbox users around the world. I´m from Brazil and I could not recommend more this game for all my friends. For me, its a console seller for the PS3 and might be a great addition to xbox library and your fanbase.
Once again, congratulations on tour great jobs: Flow, Flower and Journey. I´m looking foward to play them on 360.
Best Regards.
JJ says
Great job! I own ALL of your games and they are among the best video games I’ve ever played in my entire life! BTW, if you’re going to make games to multiple platforms, might you put to mind the idea of releasing a game on Nintendo 3DS? Also, please bring your previous games to systems like 3DS, Xbox 360, and others? Please put those into consideration. I wish you all the best of luck!
JJ
Michael Angelo Hernandez says
Really wonderful news. Journey is by far my favorite game to date. Can not wait to see what you have next. Would really like to see an extension dlc to Journey. Sequel maybe?….”Quest?” =P
Cheers,
MAH
Noborisu says
Put the games on Steam, as a ton of people said already, and I’m pretty sure we’d all buy it 😀
SP says
Please try to make flOw, Flower and Journey available on PC too. I had to sell my PS3 and cannot play your games anymore anytime soon, though I would love to do so. Steam, as people have mentioned, is a very suitable platform for it, it has allowed other independent games such as Limbo, Braid and Dear Esther to become quite popular too. We sure know that it is not you who is against this idea but the rights that Sony holds on your past games, but maybe they will agree after some more months or years have passed?
MAL says
I’ve played Journey over 200 times so far. Thank you for such a beautiful (on every level) game.
Therealmagicjack says
I’m excited to see what’s next. I’m a huge fan of your games and being over 50 and at a somewhat slower pace, your games fit me perfectly so far. I agree with Michael Angelo Hernandez on expanding that amazing ‘Journey’ game, a giant world with various goals maybe.
wel809 says
Congratulations on “Journey”!it is an amazing experience to play that game. I look forward to the announcing of your next title. Keep making amazing adventure games like Journey!
http://tinyurl.com/slaspaget54250 says
“thatgamecompany | TGC ? News ? TGC Partners
With Benchmark Capital, Goes Independent” was in fact a relatively good
blog post, . I hope you keep authoring and I’ll continue reading through! Thanks for the post ,Ashlee
Kvp666 says
I’m happy to hear that you can now indepently release your games as you please…… But (this is going to sound awful) Sony gave you guys the chance, so I basically demand every game you make to be compatible with ps3/psn. It’s only fair for us who supported and bought all your games. Thank you
Katie says
I don’t suppose there have been any updates to this? I have been wanting to play Journey since it premiered but I PC game, primarily–because consoles are so expensive and are constantly changing.
Aaron says
@Katie:
We don’t have any updates on what our next title will be, but we do have some information:
It will be multiplatform, multiplayer, and self-published. Vincent Diamante, composer for Flower, is also the Lead Sound Designer and Composer for our next title. 😀
ATH says
Nice done!
Your compagny prove the game industry can transcend the destructive mind controlled direction it have taked since the begining.
In some way your games help to bring awareness to this suffering world!
I would advice to release the source code of your incoming games in the future to prevent them of dying..
ATH