Journey dev "excited" to look into free-to-play and mobile

Jenova Chen on his desire to prove artistic games can be hugely profitable, why he won't be Kickstarting games anytime soon, and next-gen expectations

[Megaton]

Anything but mobile...

[Buff1044]

Smart decision.

[aCasualGamer]

For a guy who almost ran his company bankrupt, the last thing he should be talking about is free-to-play.

But that's just me.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Yeah we have more than enough mobile developers. Mobile games are just so boring.

[InMyOpinion]

A lot of them are really good. While I was sick I played a game called Tiny Bang Story on my tablet. Very creative and relaxing game.

And they don't set you back $40. Instead it's $1 or $2 with lots of free trial versions.

[Anon1974]

Then you're playing the wrong mobile games.

[Intentions]

It's where you should go to maximize profits. Plus it cost less to develop.

[CommonSenseGamer]

Well, mobile is where lots of money is to be made. Why limit yourself to an single platform.

[Welshy]

Because said dev made ALOT of money and ended up earning the award of the fastest selling PSN title of this generation by using that "single platform"?

You can't honestly say to me you think a mobile game could ever equal what Journey did in terms of both how amazing the game was and the phenominal reception it recieved?

[Series_IIa]

"Because said dev made ALOT of money and ended up earning the award of the fastest selling PSN title of this generation by using that "single platform"? "

There has only been one generation of PSN... This one.

[Welshy]

@Series_lla

And the PS3 has been around since 2006.

It's not an achievement to have outsold every single game ever released on PSN which has had almost 7 years and 100's if not 1000's of titles?

[Ducky]

^ Your argument still isn't compelling:

1. Said dev was bankrupt while making Journey, and luckily Journey got the attention it deserved to sell well. It was a risky move, and it doesn't always work out for some devs (such as LightBox Interactive)

2. You're using a relative scale by saying it was the best selling game on PSN. It's not a hard number, and could be cynically interpreted to mean that PSN games just have low overall sales.

3. It isn't necessary that they actually get to see the money made from Journey's sales. They were under a contract to produce those games. Chances are that they might get royalties, but it isn't a given.

I suppose I can agree that a mobile game would have difficulty matching the gameplay, but I think they could've easily gotten a comparably positive reception had they gone mobile.

[aquamala]

where did you get they made a lot of money? PSN sales figures are never released,

what's the #2 best selling PSN game? Infamous: Festival of Blood? I can't imagine that would outsell Infamous 2, which only sold 1.5 million.

so really, the "best selling" PSN games don't sell millions like retail games do.

I know there's Journey Collector's Edition in retail, but that's ranked #200 in sales in Amazon right now in video games.

[SpartanGR]

He'll regret it you'll see

[baldulf]

He'll make a ton of money probably but his game won't have the same impact as a proper console game.

[SpartanGR]

Maybe, maybe not but everyone likes being famous.

[majiebeast]

Mobile games and p2w/micro transactions something gaming doesnt need.

[Perjoss]

There are some awesome mobile games! but just please make good games and charge us a standard price for them, this freemium and free to play bull has got to go.

For example this new Real Racing game where if your car gets damaged enough it can take TWENTY minutes to repair, of course you can pay real cash to have it insta-repaired, sorry but this is not for me. At all.

[PirateThom]

Oh boy. Mobile games. Just what we always wanted from the man who brought up Flower and Journey.

[MysticStrummer]

Good luck with all that, JC. I hope your free to play games show up on PSN because mobile games aren't really my thing.