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Thatgamecompany is looking to bring its titles to a “bigger audience”, studio co-founder Jenova Chen has told us in an exclusive interview.

The studio head noted that with Journey due to amble onto PlayStation Network next month, and the company’s three game exclusivity relationship with Sony completed, the team is looking to reach “beyond just PlayStation" with its future endeavours.

Chen told our Mike Mason:

Thatgamecompany had a three game contract with Sony, so the past three games had to be Sony exclusive. Right now we are very much exploring ways to bring our games to a bigger audience, beyond just PlayStation. We are still in the process of negotiating, but I hope that we can announce it [soon]. But right now it’s still in the process.

Thatgamecompany’s produced some of the most important PlayStation Network titles over the past five years. As such, we fully expected Sony to extend the studio’s contract indefinitely by welcoming the team into PlayStation’s first-party portfolio.

But it sounds like thatgamecompany has bigger ambitions, and while we’re excited to see whatever the team does next, it'd be sad if the company did decide to step away from PlayStation.

Stay tuned for our full interview with Jenova Chen next week.

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2012/02/thatgamecompany_looking_to_move_beyond_playstation

Always wondered this, when there's a quote from someone, there's often enclosed [like this] what exactly does that mean? I know putting things in brackets (like this) is an attempt to explain things. but what's the former?

In your example it means that he never actually said "like this", even though that's exactly what he meant.

Sweet, thanks for the explanation.

Here's hoping Sony are smart and aquire this amazing developer before they can 'escape'

Part of a "dream" post I made, although not exactly the same.

I think they want to escape alla Insomniac.

It's a smart move. It amazes me that even today there are 3rd party developers who still create exclusive games. At least That Game Company got paid for it like Epic did with Gears of War. But there's just so much money out there to be had and cross platform engines make it cheap to port. It would be stupid for them not to go multiplatform.

This may be an instance of TGC leveraging their release from contract with SCE now that the 3 games stipulated in their agreement are in the can.

If SCE acquires them as one of their internal studios, it will mean more security for TGC as developers. This would also be the only reason for continuing to be a one platform developer as there isn't any benefit other than maintaing a small but loyal built in fanbase, which simply isn't a reason to restrict themselves.

If not, then their next project should open up the rest of the game market to an independent developer that has consistently produced quality games. I don't know how receptive the non-PS3 market will be to them, seeing as how they have been a niche developer within a niche market, but if solid consumer and critical feedback translates to additional sales in new markets, I think they'll do just fine on their own.

I will say that TGC is my favorite developer among the PSN exclusive developers and I will likely continue to buy their games upon release regardless of platform.

I suppose my only question would be how well their games would translate into conventional user input (analog sticks or mouse and keyboard) seeing as how all three of their games to date made some of the best use of six axis controls seen on the PS3. But, these are design issues and I suppose anything they start with made for traditional input would be specifically tailored for those input devices.

I'd just like to chime in here ASAP, as a big TGC fan, I've studied their philosophy of game design and their ambitions. It's pretty obvious where they are headed.

So before kids start goin "omg thatgamecompany on ecks bawks & Wii U"

Nope. TGC wants to hit the mainstream, HARD. Consoles aren't popular enough.
iOS & Android is their next stop.