Chen On Journey's Creation: It Bankrupted The Company
See Full ImageJust about everyone fell in love with Journey. But in order to achieve such acclaim, which ultimately resulted in numerous end-of-year awards, developer Thatgamecompany quite literally had to go bankrupt.
In speaking to Polygon, Thatgamecompany boss Jenova Chen said said that the creation of Journey exhausted all the team's funds:
"I wouldn't say that the development of Journey was a successful example of game development. We bankrupted the company."
Thankfully, the game went on to break PlayStation Network records and they did earn their money back, plus some extra profit. That being said, Chen said that due to the limited availability of the title (Journey was a PS3 exclusive), that ultimately hurt the game's sales potential. He said that in order to be a true financial success, "it has to be much bigger than a game on the PlayStation platform." And as we know, Thatgamecompany's next project is slated to arrive on multiple platforms; the studio got $5.5 million in venture capital funding to start.
So it seems the developer had to go through a lot to give us Journey, so we should be all the more appreciative.
Related Game(s): Journey
Tags: journey, thatgamecompany, journey ps3, jenova chen
2/11/2013 1:30:14 PM Ben Dutka
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Comments (11 posts)
Hoagie324
Monday, February 11, 2013 @ 2:39:34 PM
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3 up, 2 down
firesoul453
Monday, February 11, 2013 @ 3:36:04 PM
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1 up, 1 down
Omnipro
Monday, February 11, 2013 @ 5:23:47 PM
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I'm looking forward to what Thatgamecompany comes out with next for all systems.
1 up, 0 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Monday, February 11, 2013 @ 6:03:56 PM
1 up, 0 down
tes37
Monday, February 11, 2013 @ 6:09:18 PM
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1 up, 1 down
BikerSaint
Monday, February 11, 2013 @ 10:52:30 PM
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So in my book, Journey honestly became "A labor of Love".
(BTW, it was just a shame that TGC lost those 3 exec's who decided to move on during that turbulent time).
2 up, 0 down
___________
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 @ 4:12:58 AM
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you know, so the 99.99% of the world who does not live in JP with unlimited download usages and ADSL2 speeds can actually enjoy the game!
always why ive hated DL games, that and your always left with a sense of they could of been so much more.
splosion man one of my all time favorite games, yet i cant help but wonder what it would of been like if it had the budget and freedom of a typical AAA retail game.
i am alive another perfect example, such a big ambitious game, almost too much so for a DL title.
1 up, 0 down
Beamboom
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 @ 4:31:58 AM
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It would sure help explain why most exclusives have a very high focus on "showroom factor".
Last edited by Beamboom on 2/12/2013 4:38:55 AM
0 up, 0 down
Underdog15
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Monday, February 11, 2013 @ 2:00:35 PM
Good thing it did well. No sales would have ended them.