Why Journey still matters
Back when Journey landed on the PS3 in 2012 it felt like a tiny miracle: short, beautiful, and oddly powerful. thatgamecompany kept things simple — gorgeous worlds, a bit of wordless storytelling, and an experience built around feeling rather than mountains of mechanics. It wasn’t a cash-grab; it was a design experiment that somehow connected with players.
Jenova Chen points out that Journey didn’t come out of nowhere. The studio had been experimenting with emotional design in earlier projects like Flow and Flower, and by the time Journey arrived they’d figured out how to turn those ideas into something players would actually pay for. That commercial success matters — it showed the industry there was money in making games that aim for the heart as well as the thumbs.
From indie experiment to AAA feelings
Chen argues — and it’s a persuasive claim — that Journey helped nudge bigger studios toward more personal, emotional stories. He singles out titles like God of War and The Last of Us as examples of AAA games that went deeper and darker with feelings and family themes. That’s his take, not gospel, but it’s easy to see the through-line: indies took risks, proved players wanted emotional heft, and larger teams followed.
Why should you care? Because this shift changes what games can be. It affects design choices, marketing, and even how studios measure success. Players who wanted more meaningful moments now get big-budget experiences that try to deliver them, and companies that once prioritized spectacle are exploring tenderness, grief, and connection.
Meanwhile, thatgamecompany hasn’t hung up its emotional cape. Chen talks about Sky: Children of the Light as another experiment — this time mixing cinematic mood with social play to see what new feelings can emerge when interactivity and human connection collide. If Journey taught the industry to feel, Sky is testing how we feel together.
