Flower developer thatgamecompany was bankrupt when Journey shipped
"A lot of people weren't paid."
thatgamecompany, the developer of excellent PlayStation 3 oddities flOw and Flower, was bankrupt when it shipped Journey last year.
The company was forced to burn through backup resources after deciding to spend an extra year on Journey's development, co-founder Jenova Chen explained during a presentation at DICE 2013 (thanks, Strategy Informer).
"A lot of people weren't paid," he said. "We also went bankrupt as a company."
Journey originally began life as a 2006 prototype named Utopia. Back then it was a four-player game, before it was changed to two-player to emphasise players helping one another.
"The reason we wanted to create Journey besides reaching that cathartic moment in the end was to create a real connection between two people," Chen told Eurogamer last year.
"The reason I do that is because most people are saying right now: social gaming is hot. But no other game is really socialising, as in the emotional exchange between two humans."
