Journey dev going multiplatform

The studio behind PlayStation 3 downloadable games like Flow, Flower, and Journey is cutting ties with Sony. ThatGameCompany today announced that it has landed $5.5 million in venture capital funding, and it will use the money to bring its games to more platforms.

"Today I am pleased to announce ThatGameCompany has raised funding to develop and release our games independently," studio co-founder and creative director Jenova Chen wrote on the company's blog. "This enables us to bring our games to more platforms and provide our players the highest quality experience at every point of contact."

As part of the funding received from Benchmark Capital, the venture capital firm's Mitch Lasky will join ThatGameCompany's board of directors. Lasky is best known as the former chairman and CEO of Jamdat Mobile up until it was sold to Electronic Arts in 2005 for $680 million.

In his own blog post regarding the news, Lasky said, "We believe fundamentally in TGC's vision for interactive entertainment: to bring to games a little of what Pixar films brought to animation--emotional depth, engagement with fully-realized worlds, and a strong sense of authorship. In the modern, hyper-connected games market, we believe TGC can reach the broadest possible audience if that vision can be fully controlled by the company."