During a PlayStation press event last week, I spoke with thatgamecompany executive producer Robin Hunicke, who told me that the team was "really really satisfied" with the feedback on the recently wrapped up Journey beta. "So many people wrote us to say that meeting a stranger online was a satisfying experience," Hunicke said. "It was exactly the kind of feedback we wanted." If that sounds as counterintuitive to you as it did to me, Hunicke explains just how thatgamecompany managed to make meeting strangers online (ick!) a not-awful experience.

Over the course of the two-week beta, 10,000 players - 5,000 in the US and 5,000 in Europe, according to thatgamecompany co-founder Kellee Santiago - helped the small dev test its networking code. The beta was a good source of positive reinforcement; the game's ideas worked. Not bad for the studio's first multiplayer game. The networking code, on the other hand, had a single bug. "But it was a really big bug," Hunicke said, laughing. It presented itself immediately and was patched just as quickly. For the next two weeks, the team gathered feedback and enjoyed hearing players write in, sharing experiences that matched the game's goals.