PSN’s Journey "bankrupt" Thatgamecompany

The critical success of Thatgamecompany’s Journey was not enough to stop the developer going bankrupt, boss Jenova Chen has claimed.

Journey was the best-selling game on PlayStation Network in 2012 and while over time it has just about returned a profit, Chen is demanding commercial success that rivals his studio’s critical adoration in the future.

And with Thatgamecompany’s PlayStation exclusivity deal now over, that likely means its next title is going multiplatform.

"I wouldn’t say that the development of Journey was a successful example of game development," Chen told Polygon. "We bankrupted the company. I think to have a financial success, that is going to change everyone, it has to be much bigger than a game on the PlayStation platform."

Chen did stress, however, that he remains indebted to Sony for the support it has showed him, although that could not offset the limitations placed upon Journey by only appearing on PS3.

The problem that for persists for Chen is his desire to continue making emotional and artistically credible games whilst also transforming Thatgamescompany into a viable business.

"We want to make more artistic games," Jenova said of many of his youthful employees. "High quality, emotional games. I run into a lot of lost and frustrated students who study games to work on great art, but then find there is no place for them. I feel responsible for them because I showed them that is possible, but there is no place for them.

"My resolution is to create a big financial success.”