For those of you who still haven’t experienced Journey, or for those of you that have and want more, I’m excited to say I have good news for you. As we mentioned last month, the Journey Collector’s Edition Blu-ray disc will be available to purchase tomorrow.
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Good morning PlayStation nation! I just wanted to stop by and pass on an exciting piece of news for those who’ve been following thatgamecompany‘s acclaimed adventure, Journey. After winning numerous awards worldwide we are bringing Journey Collector’s Edition to Europe due to popular demand.

Available from today on PlayStation Store, priced at €19.99/£15.99, Journey Collector’s Edition is a compilation showcasing the work of thatgamecompany. In addition to Journey, it also includes the studio’s other creations Flower and flOw. These are the titles that made the studio’s name and undoubtedly deserve a play. The simplicity of flOw and the beauty of Flower will capture gamers’ attention in just the same way that Journey did.
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Hello, PS Blog readers. It has been an exciting two weeks for us since we launched Journey on the PlayStation Store. We see the personal connection between our work and the players, which is the most real and priceless reward for us. For that, we thank you so much for your support, for spending time and money to play our game, and for spreading the word about Journey to your dear friends and family. Thanks to you all, Journey has officially broken PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store sales records, surpassing all games ever released on the PlayStation Network to become the fastest-selling game ever released on PlayStation Store, in both the SCEA and SCEE regions.

After we released Flower in 2009, players sent hundreds of emails about their experience with the game. They varied from a 9-year-old girl to a 65-year-old man, from a marine serving duty overseas, to a soldier returning from Iraq. There were even stories about a mother’s memory of her two children in the wheat fields, a surreal butterfly fantasy from someone’s grandmother who passed away, and a young man who spoke about his brother who has Down syndrome. Those kinds of letters are what drive us at TGC to keep working.

And now, the reaction to Journey has been even more overwhelming. We have received more letters from fans in the two weeks since Journey’s launch than we did for Flower over the past three years!

We owe a lot to our fans. In fact, the idea of forming the thatgamecompany team to create games with Sony Santa Monica originated from several dozen emails that players sent in after playing our first student game, Cloud, from our time at USC. It was the players who told us how moving the game was and how it was important that we keep making these types of games so that more people in the world will realize what video games can be, and can grow to love games through our work. To me, that was a life-changing moment. I knew making games was my life calling.

This art piece expresses our gratitude.

Lastly, a lot of you have seemed to really enjoy the music in the game, which was composed by Austin Wintory. And we’ve received a lot of requests to release the soundtrack of the game. Well, I’m happy to announce that the soundtrack will be hitting the PS Store and iTunes on April 11, and there will be a limited CD release in the near future as well.

Thanks, again, for all your support! We’ll see you online!

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It’s been a little over three years since we launched our last game, Flower. It was a difficult game to describe, but a game that we took great pride in. Many of you took a chance with it and were as moved by it as we hoped people would be. Now we’re here, three years later. We can’t wait to let you experience our latest PlayStation exclusive game, Journey.

It has been heartening to see the reactions from the press so far.We’ve had editors tell us how much the game moved them emotionally, or fundamentally changed the way they think about multiplayer in video games. Our goal was to change the impression players have towards each other over the network. We wanted to bring a thatgamecompany-style adventure to our players and create an emotional connection between them. And it’s been great to hear we might have achieved this goal.

We get very nervous before the reviews hit. With the early access for PlayStation Plus subscribers last week, we started getting reactions from the players. We couldn’t be more moved by what reviewers and players are saying about Journey on the web. Thank you for sharing your Journey experiences with us, they are what keep us going and make all of our hard work truly worthwhile.

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Last week we heard from thatgamecompany on their mission to create innovative, emotive video game experiences. In this second dev diary video the team focuses in on their latest experience: Journey.

Journey is available now if you are a PlayStation Plus subscriber and from 14 March if you are not. If you’re still on the fence then here is a selection of reviews from around the web.

Official PlayStation Magazine – 10/10
“It’s one of the most perfect gaming experiences I can remember, created with care, packed with creativity, and topped with an irresistible ambiguity that makes every person’s Journey unique.”

Spong.com – 10/10
“A truly fantastic example of interactive entertainment, and a title that every gamer worth their salt needs to play.”

God is a Geek – 10/10
“Journey is one of the best games you’ll play all year, if not your entire life.”

Eurogamer – 9/10
“The truly brilliant move, though, was to leave a space at the very centre of the design that only a stranger can fill.”

CVG – 9/10
“It’s about details crafted by deft hands, looking to stir emotions rather than test trigger fingers.”

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