thatgamecompany given $5.5M to create games beyond consoles

[solidsnakejej]

thatgamecompany has made a series of critically acclaimed games for the Sony PlayStation 3, but with its three-title contract fulfilled, it’s now looking to produce games for other platforms independently. To do that, it’s raised $5.5 million from Benchmark Capital to help finance its bold new direction, and adding Benchmark General Partner Mitch Lasky to its board of directors.

The Santa Monica-based game studio is best known for flOw, Flower, and Journey, a series of games that aim to go beyond male-dominated shoot-em-up blockbusters and provide a whole new emotional component to gaming. The idea for TGC has always been to make games accessible to a much broader audience than the hardcore console audience, to make gaming as a form of entertainment equal to watching a movie or listening to music.

The new funding comes as the company is trying to figure out its next steps. TGC producer Robin Hunicke and co-founder Kellee Santiago decided to leave the company earlier this year. And now that its Sony deal is concluded, TGC is trying to determine which platform it will start developing for next.

TGC founder Jenova Chen told me that the studio doesn’t know whether it will build for the desktop, online, Facebook, or the iPad next. It’s looked at all those platforms in its review process. The one thing that is clear is that TGC wants to look beyond the the console market, where it will be able to reach everyone, not just hardcore gamers.

Meanwhile, the startup picked Benchmark and Lasky to help it along the way. Chen told me a big reason for that is Lasky’s experience in the gaming market: Previously an executive vice president at Electronic Arts, he’s one of the few VCs out there who has actually worked at a major gaming studio and knows how real high-fidelity games get made.

The important thing for Chen, and for TGC, is that the team will be able to remain independent and develop whatever games it wants to, without having to worry about the demands of certain platforms or publishers.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/14/ben...d-the-console/

[GTAce]

I thought Santiago left because she wanted to go on the mobile market, but the rest of the team wanted to make console games, must've read something wrong. Anyway, they shall do whatever they want to do, love the guys too much to dislike any decision they make.

[Luis]

I wish them the best of lucks and I hope they'll have as much freedom as possible to create great, great games no matter what the platforms are.

Screw mobile apps though.

[OmniStalgic]

nah, I'm sorry, but real gamers don't play stuff on Facebook -_0

So yeah, loved Journey, and appreciated flower and flow greatly, but if they are just trying to make these bs one trick pony experiences, screw em...

Plenty of breathing room on PC/XBLA/PSN IMO...if you aren't trying to reach the people who play on these platforms, who are you trying to reach? The Wii audience?

-_- I dunno, just sounds like BS, as I'm sure Sony would have gave them a bunch of money to make whatever type of game they wanted to on PSN, so I'm just not feeling the overall direction they are talking about. Mobile/Tablet gaming is not REAL gaming...

Your audience is ridiculously vast releasing on Steam/PSN/XBLA/Wii so I really don't understand what audience they are trying to reach. DOn't seem like the type of people to be worried about money, but that seems likely the only logical explanation. You aren't going to find more people out there with on IOS/Android market who will appreciate something like Journey moreso than on dedicated gaming platforms.

If they are doing something free-to-play though, more power to em....

[GTAce]

Wrong approach Omni, they don't want to reach a certain audience, never mind if hardcore gamer or casual, they want to reach everyone. And depending on the concept, it could work even on a flash/mobile platform.

[OmniStalgic]

"EVERYONE" is on DIFFERENT types of platforms though. So while I see your logic, I don't see why every interview they seem to be moving away from consoles and not simply stating we're doing consoles and everything else.

If some amazing title launches on FB or Android or something, I doubt I'll ever experience it as I always feel a game should be played with some type of input device, and touch screens don't do that for me. So yeah, still...screw em lol...if that's where they are headed...because mobile devices doesn't equate everyone to me, it's just a bigger audience.

[frosty]

In their defense, both flow and flower relied on motion control and one button to move, so they'd work flawlessly on a tablet or phone. That said, Fl0w started off as a flash game, in a domain where they literally COULD reach EVERYONE, and all it did was land them a deal with Sony. They didn't get rich off of it being available to everyone, and it was a far cry from "everyone" who played it.

[KRA]

well from my perspective their reach would actually shrink
as i have no smartphone nor tablet and i even if i had one of these devices i wouldn't enjoy it anyway as i think similar to Omni.
these devices may have bigger reach overall but it's a very different kind of experience.
for one it just can't be as immersive as something like journey played with headphones on your couch on a big TV.
i don't really get the whole 'we want to reach everyone'
becasue with changing the medium to even browser it has to come with sacrifices to the actual experience.

[masteratt]

I am into games wherever they are to my liking and thatgamecompany has a superb track record to say the least. So I will be very interested to see what they produce and on what. I don't have iOS device personally (I am assuming it's their most likely format to develop on) but my family has and if the game is good I'll be very happy to enjoy a thatgamecompany game once again.

I am glad they are looking into other formats and I am sure they'll bring as much freshness and uniqueness to whatever format as mush as they did to PSN. They have my support.

[OmniStalgic]

I am into games wherever they are to my liking and thatgamecompany has a superb track record to say the least. So I will be very interested to see what they produce and on what. I don't have iOS device personally (I am assuming it's their most likely format to develop on) but my family has and if the game is good I'll be very happy to enjoy a thatgamecompany game once again.

I am glad they are looking into other formats and I am sure they'll bring as much freshness and uniqueness to whatever format as mush as they did to PSN. They have my support.

I like being nice and open to changes as well, but I don't think I will support them if they go exclusive Android/IOS. I even get if they want to start something there for the wider audience for a larger market. But at least port it over to PSN afterwards. Gamers are simply not embracing that medium as a serious platform, and for them to go there exclusively IMO is a slap in the face to all the fans that's been with them on PSN. Who is ThatGameCompany before Flow/Flower/Journey? Not saying they couldn't have gotten there start someplace else, but that's what happened, and with every interview, it seems they are ignoring that success and market entirely.

That's the part that I don't understand. If they are specifically trying to make a tablet game, or touch screen interface, release on IOS/Android/Web then port whatever you made to 3DS/Vita, point-n click? Wii/Move would work. It just doesn't add up. Reaching everyone doesn't mean you go make a game for IOS/Android, and there's this HUGE chunk of gamers that don't even consider that real gaming. Overall, There just seems to be no commitment whatsoever to the million people that bought there games on PSN. And if that tone doesn't change soon, they can get the biggest motion-controlled middle finger I can conjure up -_-

They keep saying they want to reach "everyone" then cutting out 100 million gamers

you know what, I'm going to there website and writing them personally!

[AC!D]

They won't quit their supporters on PS3 so im not worried about other platforms. Im 100% sure whatever their plans are it will include PS3.

[Diresu]

I love my iPhone/iPad, just not as a gaming machine.

[Smokey]

I hate my iPhone.. especially as a gaming machine

[Diresu]

^As a phone it's great. As a gaming machine, it's terrible But to be honest the games on that platform are not meant for people like me, they are meant for casual play.