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So what happened to Thatgamecompany?

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spam musubi

spam musubi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,381
Magog said:
Scared? Who said that? Many of us just do not enjoy playing on a small screen or touch controls. Many people also don't have a high end phone.
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This (and all the other posts you've made since) kind of sounds like you're "scared" of mobile games tbh. Like, you haven't played the game, you have a bunch of negative assumptions about it that are not exactly based on anything, and you seem to be playing up how bad it is in your own head. That's as close to "scared" as one can get in this case

Magog said:
Perhaps? I personally am not going to play another F2P mobile game in a sea of F2P mobile games. I've never not been disappointed once I hit "the wall."
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Equanimity said:
They found success with their worst game.
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True, they got pretty successful with Flower and it was all improvements every time afterwards.
 
Loud Wrong

Loud Wrong

Member
Feb 24, 2020
14,186
Brazil said:
I would argue that it's the player base who left them behind by completely ignoring a game that's literally Journey but better in every sense because they're scared of playing on their phones.
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Are we scared of playing games on our phones or do we simply hate playing most games on our phones? Here's a hint - I'm not afraid. If they want me to play their game, they'll release it on Switch or XSX.
 
inpHilltr8r

inpHilltr8r

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,256
mazi said:
the division in sony which was responsible for publishing indie games like journey, unfinished swan, etc pretty much left and became annapurna interactive.
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and now Megan Ellison gets to pay the bills, and the games have a wider audience

having used Oracle systems I feel there's a wheel of karma at play here

(much love to 2 ap crew;)
 
Akela

Akela

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,849
Jenova Chen has said many times that they've always wanted to make games which appeal to a wider audience then traditional video games - and like it or not, most of those people aren't going to be found on consoles, so mobile was the obvious next move once they'd finished the 3 game deal with Sony. And just because Sky is a slight departure from their other games doesn't mean that it's worse then their other games by any means - plus the huge success of that game means they're more financially secure then they ever were when working with Sony.
 
KeRaSh

KeRaSh

I left my heart on Atropos
Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,275
Wasn't Sky announced at an Apple conference as an exclusive years ago, or am I thinking of a different game? If it was indeed Sky it seems it was a timed exclusive. Back then I didn't own any Apple devices so I never really bothered following them and until this thread I actually kinda forgot about them.
I do play games on my phone but they already take up enough time so I probably won't give this a try anytime soon.
 
Limless

Limless

Member
Jan 7, 2021
211
This game looks quite nice, thanks for informing me of it's existence OP! I'll check it out when it's on the Switch.

Seriously, I'm so glad so many of these kinda experimental games that you see on mobile get ported to the Switch.
 

Deleted member 17860

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,198
Magog said:
That's another confusing aspect of NuThatgamecompany. Why bring it to Switch and not the PS4 which was the home of your previous games after Sony gave you a huge leg up in the industry with a 3 game deal for some unknown college students. PS4 has a larger install base as well if money is all they love.
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surprised sony didnt try and buy them... sky is nice and all but mobile controls are shit and im not gonna play it until its on console or pc....
 

Deleted member 10737

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
49,774
KeRaSh said:
Wasn't Sky announced at an Apple conference as an exclusive years ago, or am I thinking of a different game? If it was indeed Sky it seems it was a timed exclusive. Back then I didn't own any Apple devices so I never really bothered following them and until this thread I actually kinda forgot about them.
I do play games on my phone but they already take up enough time so I probably won't give this a try anytime soon.
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it was announced in an apple conference, and released on ios a few months before it came to android

 
LetsEatSnacks

LetsEatSnacks

Member
Oct 18, 2020
1,813
United States
I love that this thread mostly turned into people discovering their new game and wanting to check it out while the OP still talks about their new TV and why it sucks they can't play it on there.
 
NinjaScooter

NinjaScooter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
54,207
I imagine they took some good upfront money from Apple. As this thread/forum often shows, gamers can be incredibly fickle so putting your company's future solely in their hands and ignoring business deals that might help you keep the lights on might not always be the best idea for people actually trying to run a business, no matter how "noble" a vocal minority of message board gamers might think it is.
 
fanboy

fanboy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,452
Slovakia
Wjy did it take them so long to launch new game? Is it self published? They didnt habe enough resources? And why the fuck did they abandon their fanbase on previous platforms?
 
Huey

Huey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,242
Sky might not be your thing but it's been extremely successful, is very well rated and is apparently playable without engaging in the microtransactions

think ya just gotta acknowledge a bit of a thread backfire here.
 
Kinthey

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,358
I played a little of Sky and didn't find it engaging at all. There was also that giant bomb quicklook that was pretty negative. Nice that it seems to be a success for them though
 
DongBeetle

DongBeetle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,018
Magog said:
That's another confusing aspect of NuThatgamecompany. Why bring it to Switch and not the PS4 which was the home of your previous games after Sony gave you a huge leg up in the industry with a 3 game deal for some unknown college students. PS4 has a larger install base as well if money is all they love.
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Because presumably their contract expired? Game companies aren't corporate cheerleaders for multimillion dollar companies like a lot of fans are lmao they likely had talks or a deal with Nintendo. Also the Switch is a lot closer to the systems that already run Sky than the PS4 is. Also they have the biggest install base in the world rn they're a free game for both iOS and Android haha
 
KORNdog

KORNdog

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
8,001
Brazil said:
I would argue that it's the player base who left them behind by completely ignoring a game that's literally Journey but better in every sense because they're scared of playing on their phones.
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😂
No-one is scared of playing on their phone. Personally i just find it a shit way to game. Scared and disliking something aren't the same thing. Like, I don't like tomato's either, but I'm not cowering under the bed from them.

As for the topic at hand. I have no interest in more of the same from them tbh. What I liked about their Sony output was that each game was vastly different conceptually....and I imagine a lot of their fans felt the same. Making a journey clone on mobile was never a good idea.
 

aceldama

Member
Jun 8, 2019
518
So they almost went bankrupt from a game with a 3 year dev cycle then they took 7 years to put out their next game. There's a big gap in that story and it would be interesting to know what happened. Were there cancelled projects, failed partnerships?

Chen did an interview last year saying he'd like to bring this game to Switch and Playstation 4 FWIW. Switch probably has 6/12 month console exclusivity deal or something.
 
Jonathan Lanza

Jonathan Lanza

"I've made a Gigantic mistake"
Member
Feb 8, 2019
6,844
Brazil said:
I would argue that it's the player base who left them behind by completely ignoring a game that's literally Journey but better in every sense because they're scared of playing on their phones.
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Relax, I just like having the precision that buttons allow me to have is all. At least for real time games.
 
HaremKing

HaremKing

Banned
Dec 20, 2018
2,416
Yikes, so the studio behind Journey/Flower went on to create a predatory MTX-filled mobile game.

Well, everyone has to survive in their own way I guess.

Funny reading something like " "Once you have a park, it can be a place people go to just to hang out and relax -- they're not there to play the same game every single day," he says. "Everyone understands if we just continue to produce content, like a premium game, the player will always consume it faster than you're making it. So we shifted our strategy to focus on how we could build a park where people who love this type of game can find a social space. How we can break the ice between players and create what I call 'intimate connections.' What keeps the players around is the other players, not the game...

This feeds into the game's monetisation design. Just as the game was built around encouraging players to interact and cooperate with each other, so too were the economics designed around exchanging gifts with each other rather than spending on yourself."

So basically they're monetizing anyway they can the friendships and social relationships you can have in the game. No thanks.

And holy crap the article title this quote is from... wow.

www.gamesindustry.biz

The developer of Journey bucks the trend of "predatory" monetisation

Thatgamecompany has changed. Once a poster child for artistic indie games like Journey and Flower, it has evolved into …
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz

Yeah, bucks the trend... and not in a good way.
 
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Stoney Mason

Stoney Mason

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,922
Jonathan Lanza said:
Relax, I just like having the precision that buttons allow me to have is all. At least for real time games.
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It's fine to not want a play a game on a phone if a person so chooses. But the game does have controller support. In fact it has arguably better controller support since you can use a variety of controllers from different platforms to play it on mobile.
 
DongBeetle

DongBeetle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,018
HaremKing said:
Yikes, so the studio behind Journey/Flower went on to create a predatory MTX-filled mobile game.

Well, everyone has to survive in their own way I guess.

Funny reading something like " "Once you have a park, it can be a place people go to just to hang out and relax -- they're not there to play the same game every single day," he says. "Everyone understands if we just continue to produce content, like a premium game, the player will always consume it faster than you're making it. So we shifted our strategy to focus on how we could build a park where people who love this type of game can find a social space. How we can break the ice between players and create what I call 'intimate connections.' What keeps the players around is the other players, not the game...

This feeds into the game's monetisation design. Just as the game was built around encouraging players to interact and cooperate with each other, so too were the economics designed around exchanging gifts with each other rather than spending on yourself."

So basically they're monetizing anyway they can the friendships and social relationships you can have in the game. No thanks.
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You can still have friendships and social relationships you can just pay to have more. You unlock more naturally tho iirc I never ran into a pay wall
 
Molten_

Molten_

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,555
I don't really get what's so difficult to understand about some people not wanting to play a game like this on their phones.

Like, I'm sure it's a great game. I don't think anybody is trashing the game itself. People just want to experience it on a big screen, with a controller. Nothing weird about that.

I will definitely play it when it comes to Switch.
 
Stoney Mason

Stoney Mason

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,922
Molten_ said:
I don't really get what's so difficult to understand about some people not wanting to play a game like this on their phones.

Like, I'm sure it's a great game. I don't think anybody is trashing the game itself. People just want to experience it on a big screen, with a controller. Nothing weird about that.

I will definitely play it when it comes to Switch.
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Absolutely no said you can't wait to play the game on the console if you so choose. The OP is the one who made a thread about a game on mobile begging the question why did they betray the playstation brand to make a mobile game.

Also once again to reiterate you can play a mobile game both on a TV and with a controller if you so choose. You don't have to of course. But you can do that if you want to. Or a person can wait to see if said game is eventually ported. Of course that's not the direction the person in the op took at all with the thread.
 

Celine

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,030
Even if you don't like to play with your phone, Sky: Children of the Light is coming to Switch in Spring 2021.
 
Iwao

Iwao

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,812
Where is the proof that the old fans ditched them because "mobile"?

Their contract ended, they decided to develop iOS first and it took almost an entire year to get it on Android devices. Even if you want to argue people aren't into mobile games, they left out a large part of the market intially. There's gonna be far more to it than "PlayStation fans said meh".
 
Fukuzatsu

Fukuzatsu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,323
I mean, even without getting into console wars, the fact is if you were a fan of this studio's work, you were playing it on a PlayStation or (much later), a computer or iPhone/iPad. The gap between Journey's original release and the PC/mobile version was 7 years, as a matter of fact. So when their next project isn't even on consoles or PC yet, let alone the one all their other games were available on after a year and a half, it's not exactly surprising to see posts in this thread that go "wait, they released another game?"
 
Huey

Huey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,242
This thread is ultimately just becoming people posting that they don't like mobile games. It's not my go to either, but they're a huge audience and sky is hard major success on iOS. That's "what happened to thatgamecompany"
Jonathan Lanza said:
Relax, I just like having the precision that buttons allow me to have is all. At least for real time games.
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Sky supports any controllers that iOS supports, including DS4 and Xbox pads.
 
OP
OP
Magog

Magog

Banned
Jan 9, 2021
561
LetsEatSnacks said:
I love that this thread mostly turned into people discovering their new game and wanting to check it out while the OP still talks about their new TV and why it sucks they can't play it on there.
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If people check it out because of this thread that is actually pretty cool. I'm a fan of their older games and if people enjoy this one that's great. It just to me feels like a huge departure.
 
Delphine

Delphine

Fen'Harel Enansal
Administrator
Mar 30, 2018
3,658
France
Brazil said:
I would argue that it's the player base who left them behind by completely ignoring a game that's literally Journey but better in every sense because they're scared of playing on their phones.
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To be fair, their loss for taking such a long long long time to release it on Android in the first place.
I'll never get the priority iOS got here over Android, and I heavily dislike it. It sure was what kept me away from the game for so long. And certainly not the fact it's a phone game to begin with.

EDIT: So I just checked, and apparently my phone isn't even "recent enough" to be able to install the damn game. Mind you, I have an Honor 8, they're not even 5 year old phones in term of 1st release (July 2016), and I bought mine 3 years ago (November 2017). Lmaooo okay bye, I guess. The financial and technical hoops one has to jump through in order to be able to play the game to begin with, sure are something.
 
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NightShift

NightShift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,043
Australia
I kind of feel bad for ignoring Sky however I think before it broke out of Apple jail, there was an interview that implied the console versions wouldn't be F2P and I'd rather wait for that.
 
fiendcode

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,933
For those who don't know both Nintendo and Microsoft also tried to sign the devs that became thatganecompanyway back after they graduated but they went with Sony. Nintendo specifically wanted them to expand Cloud into a fuller WiiWare game.
 
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