Thatgamecompany’s Journey wins GameCity Prize

Thatgamecompany’s PSN exclusive title Journey has won the second GameCity Prize.

Recognising games as a cultural art-form, Journey beat Mass Effect 3, Fez, Super Mario 3D Land, Catherine, Johann Sebastian Joust and Proteus to claim the award.

Whilst Journey triumphed, special mention was also awarded to Polytron’s isometric platformer Fez for being an “extraordinary work of invention, whilst never losing sight of the fact that it was first and foremost a videogame”.

“I really like the goal of GameCity, to get people to notice games and talk about games, particularly for people who don’t encounter many video games in their daily life,” said thatgamecompany creative director Jenova Chen.

“Thatgamecompany has always focused on making games for everyone, so it’s nice to see GameCity recognise our game and give us an award. In the end, we believe that games are a mature media that deserve to be enjoyed and loved by everyone, by people. Thank you very much for this prize.”

Judges of the award included Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway, comic artist and writer David Gibbons, BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed, accress Louise Brealey and BBC Radio DJ Jo Whiley.

The GameCity Prize was launched last year at the culture-themed Nottingham-based event, with Mojang’s hit world-building game Minecraft winning the inaugural prize.