Journey Devs get MASSIVE investment.

[Qitz]

ThatGameCompany, the Developers behind the critically acclaimed Journey, have acquired a massive $5.5 million dollar investment from Benchmark Capitals, who also hold investments in everything from eBay to RedHat Linux.

Founder Jenova Chen said the company is looking into publishing on platforms like the iPad and Facebook. Specifically that it "...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."

As a result of the investment, Benchmark Capital General Partner Mitch Lasky, a former executive vice president at Electronic Arts, is joining thatgamecompany's board of directors.

This should turn up a great deal of games with that much money put behind them.

TechCrunch [http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/14/benchmark-capital-invests-5-5m-in-thatgamecompany-to-take-emotional-gaming-beyond-the-console/]

 

[Smooth Operator]

Um... 5.5 mil is not really that much, pretty sure Journey itself came close to that.

While it is nice to see them getting funding and hopefully it does mean multi platform releases for once, but the other bits do not sound good:
- iPad and Facebook, I would prefer you made proper games instead
- "not just hardcore gamers", guys you never made anything for hardcore gamers so where is this going
- former EA CEO joins... oh hell no

 

[Hal10k]

- former EA CEO joins... oh hell no

Senior Vice President of EA Mobile, not CEO of anything. And he was only on for a few months in 2006.

[link]http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=7960873&privcapId=19153&previousCapId=19153&previousTitle=Benchmark%20Capital[/link]

 

[Qitz]

Um... 5.5 mil is not really that much, pretty sure Journey itself came close to that.

While it is nice to see them getting funding and hopefully it does mean multi platform releases for once, but the other bits do not sound good:
- iPad and Facebook, I would prefer you made proper games instead
- "not just hardcore gamers", guys you never made anything for hardcore gamers so where is this going
- former EA CEO joins... oh hell no

5.5 Mil can be a good chunk for an Indy Dev with no publisher or advertising to go about. Plus more money equals better product.

I can see the iPad and Facebook stuff being rather odd, iPad less so but Facebook games tend to be rather monotonous.

As for the "Not just Hardcore Gamers" that seemed to be just a reassurement for people who liked to play Journey sparingly that they're not going 180 themselves.