Journey Message Board older than one year ago

#journey People have a hard time talking on the internet about crying. Crying is a vulnerable enough act on its own that taking the time to write about it just seems over the top! When we talk about games like Journey, we usually talk about how "the room got dusty," or we "got something in our eye." More »

It’s official: Spring Fever has been elevated to a full-on pandemic and gamers everywhere are showing symptoms. Case in point: our week-one title Journey has become the fastest-selling PSN title ever released by SCEA! Due to the overwhelming response to Spring Fever, we are delivering a bonus week packed with more special offers, starting with the multiplayer car combat game Wheels of Destruction and a 20% discount for PlayStation Plus members!

Wheels of Destruction‘s vehicular mayhem gives you tons of awesome weapons to decimate your enemies in the multiplayer arena. You can learn more about Wheels of Destruction in a series of dev diaries and videos here.

If automotive ultraviolence isn’t your bag, we hope you got a chance to check out PSN’s fastest-selling game Journey, an immersive online adventure that has enchanted gamers and critics alike. Journey is one trip you won’t want to miss, providing a deeply personal experience in which your path crosses with other players in unusual ways. You’ll also want to explore the eerie puzzles of Closure, last week’s highly reviewed Spring Fever entry.

Also arriving with this final week of Spring Fever is a deep 30% discount for Mortal Kombat content, with PlayStation Plus subscribers getting a whopping 50% off! Choose from any of the DLC packs for WB Interactive’s 2011 fighter Mortal Kombat, or pick up Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection and Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe! They’re a bloody good time.

Read on for the full list of this week’s Spring Fever releases.

Wheels of Destruction

• PS3 Game (Reg. $9.99, PS Plus $7.99)

Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection

• PS3 Game (Reg. $9.99, Sale $6.99, PS Plus $4.89)

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

• PS3 Game (Reg. $19.99, Sale $13.99, PS Plus $9.79)

Mortal Kombat

• DLC Warrior Bundle (Reg. $14.99, Sale $10.49, PS Plus $7.34)
• Warrior Freddy Krueger (Reg. $4.99, Sale $3.49, PS Plus $2.44)
• Warrior Kenshi (Reg. $4.99, Sale $3.49, PS Plus $2.44)
• Warrior Rain (Reg. $4.99, Sale $3.49, PS Plus $2.44)
• Warrior Skarlet (Reg. $4.99, Sale $3.49, PS Plus $2.44)
• Klassic Skins Pack 1 (Reg. $4.99, Sale $3.49, PS Plus $2.44)

Robin Hunicke, thatgamecompany's "Producer Extraordinaire" since 2009, has left the Journey developer to join Tiny Speck, the Canadian studio responsible for Glitch. Hunicke will be "providing leadership in game design" for Tiny Speck and Glitch specifically from Tiny Speck's San Francisco offices, according to an announcement at the Glitch Blog.

"When they told me they had an office in San Francisco, where folks were joining up to imagine new fun for Glitch... well, I must admit I swooned," Hunicke said in an update on her personal blog.

Hunicke's departure from thatgamecompany comes hot on the heels of Kellee Santiago's similar announcement earlier this morning. It was also heralded by an anonymous source speaking to Gamasutra, who warned of further "key staff departures" following in Santiago's footsteps.

We thought Journey was a very good game, as you may recall, and apparently we weren't the only ones looking forward to its release, as Journey is now the fastest-selling SCEA-region PSN game in all of recorded history. Previously, that honor was held by Sucker Punch's Infamous 2: Festival of Blood.

"We thank you so much for your support, for spending time and money to play our game and for spreading the word about Journey to your dear friends and family," said thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen in a post on the PlayStation Blog. "We have received more letters from fans in the two weeks since Journey's launch than we did for Flower over the past three years!"

Chen also announced that Journey's brilliant score (composed by Austin Wintory) will be available on the PS Store and iTunes come April 10, with a "limited" CD release to follow shortly after.

Kellee Santiago has announced that she is leaving ThatGameCompany, which she co-founded six years ago. Santiago helped guide the studio's creative vision as they created FlOw, Flower and Journey. More »

We really do just have the strangest photos of developers floating around our wiki pages.

Kellee Santiago had been with thatgamecompany since its inception. She co-founded the company alongside the studio's creative director Jenova Chen, and has been around for each one of the heralded indie developer's projects. Now, it appears thatgamecompany will have to learn to get along without her.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Santiago announced today that she is leaving thatgamecompany for an as-yet unannounced destination. She described the split as "entirely amicable," and made it clear that it was simply time for her to move on to another place.

After doing these three games, I think it was a really great opportunity for all of us to look at what we've learned and what I've taken from that experience, and go forth and take it into new arenas.

While Chen has been the creative mind behind thatcompany's many experiments in game design, Santiago's role as president had much to do with the behind-the-scenes work of making his visions a reality.

So much of my work at Thatgamecompany was really supporting Jenova's visions for the types of games he wanted to make, and I felt like I have done everything I needed to do there, and that he's in a great place now to go on and continue with some of the other people at Thatgamecompany, to take that to a whole new height.

This marks something of a bittersweet day for thatgamecompany. Prior to Santiago's announcement, Chen had blogged that the studio's most recent project, the critically acclaimed Journey, has become the fastest selling game in the history of the PlayStation Network. The Gamasutra article also mentions that a new project has begun at thatgamecompany, though now it'll have to progress without Santiago's assistance.

Chen and those remaining at thatgamecompany expressed mutual admiration and appreciation for Santiago's work in a statement from the company.

While we want to continue the path of Thatgamecompany, Kellee has found a new direction in her career. Though our path in the future may be different, as TGC begins our next project, we wish Kellee a good journey and that our paths may cross again.

According to PlayStation's official blog, "... Journey has officially broken PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store sales records, surpassing all first and third-party games to become the fastest-selling game ever released in the SCEA region on the PlayStation Network." This bit of heartening ...

Kellee Santiago, co-founder of thatgamecompany, left the Journey developer today. "Thanks so much for the kind words today, I feel so much love and gratitude," she Tweeted. "It's time to hit the 'Start New Journey' button!" She has yet to announce her destination.

Santiago told Gamasutra that she hopes to take what she's learned from making thatgamecompany's three PSN games, "and go forth and take it into new arenas." She said she saw her role at thatgamecompany as supporting Jenova Chen's visions for game design. "... I felt like I have done everything I needed to do there, and that he's in a great place now to go on and continue with some of the other people at Thatgamecompany, to take that to a whole new height." Gama also cites anonymous sources who warn of other "key staff departures."

A thatgamecompany representative told Joystiq "Obviously, Kellee has been a huge part of thatgamecompany over the past six years. Even though it's sad to see her leave, we are very excited to see what she does in the future."

#journey Luke's Note: Artist Zac Gorman returns this month with another wonderful motion comic, this time for one of the year's most memorable trips, Journey. More »

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Today’s show is a wee bit late…but for good reason! With full details on Disney’s Epic Mickey: The Power of Two rolling out wide right this very moment, we cajoled threatened convinced veteran game designer and Epic Mickey creative director Warren Spector to join us on our humble slipshod industry-leading podcast. In my youth, I saw Spector as a god given his key role developing legendary games such as Deus Ex, Thief, Wing Commander and many more. Warren describes his work on Epic Mickey: The Power of Two — out this fall on PS3 with PlayStation Move support — as well as his thoughts on Deus Ex: Human Revolution and PS Vita, working with cartoon mice instead of cyberpunk assassins, and much more.

Today’s show also welcomes Sean Hollister, West Coast Editor of sexy new gadget website The Verge. We have a grand ol’ time talking Journey (spoilers!), Mass Effect 3’s ending (OMG moar spoilers!), and our favorite game of all time. And, per usual, we also reveal next week’s PSN lineup and serve up a slew of new user questions and user tips. Don’t forget: Submitting helpful user tips or good user questions might net you a free PSN game, so don’t hold back!

The Cast Sid Shuman – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Specialist Nick Suttner – PlayStation Sr. Product Evaluator Rey Gutierrez – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Specialist Sean Hollister – West Coast Editor, The Verge

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

#listenhere Argh! Cut it out, Journey soundtrack! I'm trying to look cool here, and you keep giving me goosebumps and making me stare wistfully into the middle distance! More »

#kelleesantiago Kellee Santiago is president and co-founder of thatgamecompany, which released Journey last week. Their previous game, Flower, is a featured, playable game at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's new exhibit The Art of Video Games, which opened this weekend. Santiago was at the museum as one of the featured panelists in Friday's festivities, and I had a chance to speak with her briefly about Flower, Journey, and where thatgamecompany might go next. More »

Us and the Game Industry's common dreams ltd squeaked by its deadline with $20,256 of its $20,000 Kickstarter goal -- not that raising tens of thousands of dollars from 373 people is exactly "squeaking by." Us and the Game Industry will officially be able to continue production, complete shooting and edit its footage of successful indie developers into a complete movie, its Kickstarter page reads.

Us and the Game Industry began filming in March 2009, so this isn't a bandwagon response to the success of Indie Game: The Movie; it's merely a different approach. Where Indie Game featured a host of relatively (and previously) unknown developers working on unreleased titles, Us follows more established powerhouses, including thatgamecompany as it builds Journey over three years, Johann Sebastian Joust's Douglas Wilson of Die Gut Fabrik, Jason Rohrer of Inside a Star-Filled Sky and "more," common dreams promises.

#watchthisplaythis You've seen the screenshots, the trailers, and the words written about it. It's not hard to see that Journey is a beautiful game. More »

ThatGameCompany's Journey is a beautiful, evocative, and at-times astonishing game. It comes out today on the PlayStation Network. For a more detailed look, check out our full Kotaku review. More »

Seems wherever you look, Journey is on the tip of people's tongue. The latest from thatgamecompany -- makers of Flow and Flower -- Journey is a spiritual journey meant to inspire, relax and make players think. Now, dogfoodfilms, is taking the emotional game and mashing it up with two of the best songs from the band Journey. Check it out below and then catch Up at Noon's Journey skit and interview with thatgamecompany's Jenovah Chen. Also, read IGN's 9.0 Journey review...

When we talk about beauty in video games, more often than not we’re discussing it purely in the aesthetic sense. We’re talking about a game’s graphics, how pretty its art style is, and the like. Or maybe we’re discussing the soundtrack, referencing the aural beauty of a game’s music. This is more often the case than not simply because when we think of video games, we aren’t often able to point to more than a handful of experiences that truly affected us beyond the surface level emotions inherent to gaming: namely those of basic joy, humor, and all too often, frustration.

Who are you? And why are you in this desert? Journey never bothers to answer these questions, but you won't feel cheated for that fact.

Journey, the latest game from indie development studio thatgamecompany is certainly a game that offers up aesthetic beauty, both in its visuals and score. But where it truly shines is in the experience of playing it. In Journey, the mere acts of jumping, running, and sliding around a painstakingly crafted world are enough to invoke strong emotional responses from the player. Every element, every mechanic, every single little thing works in seemingly effortless concert to deliver a game that is experientially beautiful from surface to core.

Maybe that won’t be an altogether surprising thing to learn for those who have previously delved into the worlds imagined by thatgamecompany and its creative lead, Jenova Chen. In games like flOw and flower, Chen and crew have previously shown us gameplay concepts that blend traditional game mechanics with headier, less immediately tangible ideas of what a game environment can be. In that regard, Journey feels very much like a culmination of the studio’s previous work. It feels like the end result of many lessons learned, trials overcome, and ideas fully explored. It is confident in its design, and unwavering in its ambiguity. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece.

In Journey, you play as a nameless, nearly faceless creature of indeterminate origin. You’re decked in a robe that could be perceived as religious garb (or could just as easily just be a nicely decorated robe.) There is no real preamble to explain your character, where they came from, or why they find themselves standing in the middle of a vast, lonely desert. Nor do you get a particular explanation for why you are compelled to venture toward a distant mountain, with a peak that glows in a way that practically beckons you forward. All these details are left to the player’s imagination, perception, and interpretation.

All you do know is that you want to move forward, through that desert and toward that mountain. Initially, all you can do is walk. Soon, you’ll discover a cluster of reddish fabrics that look similar to the scarf that’s draped around your character’s neck. These fabrics turn out to be the fuel for your sole major ability in Journey. They give your character the power to leap and float through the air for limited periods of time. There is a sentient quality to these little swaths of cloth, especially later on as...well, I won’t spoil it for you.

That’s the tricky thing about trying to describe a game like Journey to someone. So much of its wondrous appeal comes from simply not knowing what to expect. Going in with less specific details is ideal, as knowing how your journey evolves over time before you’ve even taken it would rob that first time through of much of its awe-inspiring beauty. It is enough to simply say that the world around you evolves into more than just a desert. The terrain grows, both in scope and treacherousness as time goes on. Each “level” of Journey is comparatively unique, offering up something the player hasn’t yet seen before. Taking in that ever-evolving world without too much foreknowledge is not merely recommended; it’s necessary.

You have no direct say in Journey's multiplayer element, and trust me when I say that's for the best.

And yet, once you have finished it, the desire to go back and play again and again is there. Is the experience lessened by having already done it once before? Absolutely not. If anything, it’s heightened by the awareness of what’s to come, and the anticipation of seeing it all over again. The first time through, it’s crucial to be unsullied by too much information, but for subsequent plays, it won’t even matter.

It’s not that Journey varies itself up, or really changes at all from play to play. And yet there is one key difference, one unpredictable factor that never comes up the same way twice: multiplayer.

Yes, Journey has cooperative multiplayer, but not in the traditional sense we’ve come to expect from games in recent years. There is no matchmaking screen, no friend invite functionality, or even voice chat. Hell, you don’t even get a say in when the multiplayer becomes a factor. So long as your PlayStation 3 is online, at some point within the game, a second player, drawn randomly from the pool of other players making that very same journey, will simply appear alongside you. No, they don’t just drop in out of thin air. It’s more like you’ll turn a corner, and suddenly they’ll be standing there. Or you’ll jump off a ledge, and they’ll be waiting for you at the bottom. It’s a completely seamless transition.

But what does having two players actually do for the game? Mechanically, very little. There are no cooperative abilities to speak of, and no real communication between players to speak of. The sole mechanical benefit for working in tandem is that by standing close to one another, you can recharge each other’s jump ability to the fullest. As for communication, the sole way to get the other player’s attention is to use the “sing” ability, a single button press that causes your character to let out a solitary note. Normally this mechanic is used to charge up de-energized cloth pieces around the world, but when another player is around, it becomes a kind of de facto Morse code.

How you and your new-found companion choose to roll is entirely on each of you. You can stick together and experience the journey’s end arm-in-arm (or, in this case, I suppose scarf-in-scarf is more accurate), or you may split off at some point. The first time I played through Journey, my companion left nearly as soon as they had arrived, which allowed me to finish the game on my own. The second time, I made it a point to stick by my new friend, and they seemingly did the same.

It’s difficult to describe what, exactly, it is that makes the act of playing through Journey with another traveler so much better, but it really is. There is something deeply cathartic and moving about pushing through the late game’s obstacles together, looking out for one another as you climb, slide, and float past what pitfalls await you. Without giving much detail, I’ll simply say that there is a single shot at the very end of the game (one that you control) that is an emotionally joyous experience when you come to it on your own. And yet, when I got to that same place with my compatriot, that joy became something transcendental and overwhelming. They say the greatest journeys are those shared with others; this Journey would appear to prove that.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there's a bit more to Journey's world than just a big desert.

Perhaps some of you reading this might just shake your head at everything I’ve described thus far, mostly because I’ve described the game in largely superlative terms without really addressing the mechanics of the game itself, save but to say they are simple. Allow me to add that they are also effective, if that makes you feel any better. The greater point, however, is that you won’t really have to think of them. There aren’t many moments in Journey where you feel yourself concentrating on hitting the X button at a very specific time, or bemoaning the lack of jump energy currently at your disposal. Thoughts like that don’t enter your head because the core design simply doesn’t require them to.

You’re never so far from an energy boost that you’ll have to backtrack just to navigate an obstacle. You’re never “lost,” exactly, because the game is incredibly adept at showing you where you ought to be going, while allowing for a bit of exploration and discovery on your own. I don’t even recall dying at any point while playing Journey, though it is implied that you can. The easy accusation here, then, is that Journey is an incredibly easy game. That’s true, though perhaps an overly-simplified explanation.

Journey doesn’t hold your hand. It doesn’t tell you how you’re expected to play it, and that’s good. There’s no HUD to speak of. What little information you do need to know about how much damage you have left to take, and how much jump ability remains is right there on your character's scarf. It's part of the natural world you've entered, with no distracting HUD elements to ruin the immersion. What few bits of reality do seep their way into Journey are, quite frankly, unwelcome. Namely the initial controller tutorial, which seems almost carelessly tossed into a game world otherwise unsoiled by button prompts, life meters, and whatever else. Everything Journey does is entirely in service of keeping you specifically focused on your experience. It goes out of its way to ensure that the only thing you’re thinking about is the world that surrounds you, and that you, the player, are equally surrounded by it.

And it does a hell of a job, too. The visual art alone in Journey is enough to captivate those that play it. Its character and architectural art is of that gorgeous pseudo-religious style that’s informed everything from the modern day Legend of Zelda games to the works of Team Ico, and yet it remains distinctive and singular. It’s mesmerizing stuff, made even better by breathtaking lighting effects and a sound design that’s equal parts enrapturing and utterly unobtrustive. The score by composer Austin Wintory plays so perfectly into the emotional beats of the game world that it feels as much a part of the world as the ground you’re standing on. But again, it's these aesthetic elements working in tandem with Journey's design that truly sucks you into the game. Every single moment of Journey feels painstakingly crafted. There aren't bugs, glitches, or wonky physics issues to worry about. If you can find a polygon out of place in Journey, it's most likely because you went searching for it.

As ruined worlds go, Journey's is simply awesome.

If there is a remaining quibble anyone might have, it will be Journey’s length, though I assure you this is an unnecessary nitpick. Yes, Journey is a fairly short game, clocking in at around two hours of total playtime. The thing of it is, if you’re going to think of Journey with the old idea of “dollar value divided by number of hours equals quality of experience” in mind, then you’re going about this all wrong. Journey is not a single serving game. It’s not meant to be played once and then abandoned. And while yes, the mechanics of it are quite simple, there is no reason you should even be thinking about those sorts of things while playing. If you’re even still aware that you’re holding a controller more than 15 minutes in, Journey may just not be for you.

Who is Journey for, then? It is for those that are able to lose themselves in the experience. That is perhaps a vague, nebulous recommendation, but that’s similarly the grand sum of Journey. It’s not a game you can easily pigeonhole into a specific genre or niche. There isn't an easy "if you like this, then you'll definitely like this" kind of comparison to be made. Perhaps the blandest description I can give for it is that it is a game made more to be felt and appreciated rather than simply consumed, as we so often tend to do with new games nowadays. Journey may be a game predicated on familiar mechanics and concepts, but what it does with them is something that borders on revelatory.

With Journey‘s wide release taking place later today, this edition of Pulse presented by PlayStation Network celebrates the innovative gameplay and stunning visuals from the most anticipated PSN game this year. For those of you who haven’t experienced this beautiful title, note that Journey also kicks off this year’s Spring Fever campaign starting today on PlayStation Store. Christina Lee also checks out last week’s release of MotorStorm RC for both PS3 and Vita, which comes wiith 16 unique tracks and customizable models. The PS Vita version of MotorStorm RC is FREE courtesy of the new Scion IQ. Also new for PS Vita this week is Reality Fighters, an augmented reality fighting game where the battle arenas are created using the PS Vita’s camera system.

Pulse also examines recent updates to the Starhawk multiplayer beta (now available to all on PSN) that now supports up to 32 players on the new Planet Dust map (with my favorite new vehicle – the Sidewinder Jetbike) and the UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception Co-op Shade Survival Mode that pits Drake and company against hordes of flaming demons. Finally, we highlight the top 10 PSN games that you guys downloaded during the 29 days of February.

Download full HD, SD, and PS Vita editions of Pulse from PlayStation Store after the update this afternoon.

It’s been a little over three years since we launched our last game, Flower. It was a difficult game to describe, but a game that we took great pride in. Many of you took a chance with it and were as moved by it as we hoped people would be. Now we’re here, three years later, on March 13th, 2012. We can’t wait to let you experience our latest PlayStation-exclusive game, Journey.

It has been heartening to see the reactions from the press so far. We’ve had editors tell us how much the game moved them emotionally, or fundamentally changed the way they think about multiplayer in video games. Our goal was to change the impression players have towards each other over the network. We wanted to bring a thatgamecompany-style adventure to our players and create an emotional connection between them. And it’s been great to hear we might have achieved this goal.

We get very nervous before the reviews hit. With the early access for PlayStation Plus subscribers last week, we started getting reactions from the players. We couldn’t be more moved by what reviewers and players are saying about Journey on the web. Thank you for sharing your Journey experiences with us, they are what keep us going and make all of our hard work truly worthwhile.

Don’t forget to head over to Facebook to pick up your exclusive Journey avatar for your PSN ID. If you’ve played Journey already, let us know in the comments what you think of it. And if you’re waiting to get it tonight, let us know what you’re most looking forward to. I hope you enjoy the game, and I hope to see you online!

Beneath all that beautiful sand and those wide-open skies, Journey is a metaphor for birth.

PSN has a fever, and the only prescription is... well, lots of liquids and rest, probably, and definitely not cowbell. Seriously, have you been near someone playing the cowbell while your head is in a vice grip of feverish pain? It's terrible.

PSN has spring fever, and its only symptoms are offering discounts and special deals on a handful of franchises for the next three weeks. PSN Spring Fever begins tomorrow with the launch of Journey for non-PS Plus members (no discount; just the release) and a sale on the Call of Duty franchise, with Black Ops, Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, and Classic full games on sale, and World at War's map packs on discount.

Check out this week's sale below, as provided by the PlayStation Blog, and play Journey. We think you'll really enjoy it.

The sun is starting to shine brighter and the days are longer, which can only mean one thing: Spring Fever is back on PlayStation Network! Every year, Spring Fever brings a bouquet of fresh new downloadable PS3 games to PSN with some special offers and discounts in the PlayStation Store each week for three weeks. This year, we’re also offering discounts on tons of content from some of the biggest franchises in games, with a new franchise featured each week. In addition, there will be special PlayStation Plus benefits throughout the event, including awesome early access and huge discounts (up to 75% off!).

This week Spring Fever starts off strong with one of the most highly-anticipated and best PSN games ever, Journey, and one of the biggest game franchises of all time, Call of Duty. PlayStation Plus subscribers have already been enjoying Journey, thanks to the early access they’ve had to the game for the past week.  Today is the last day for PS Plus subscribers to take advantage of this special offer, so head into the PlayStation Store today to download it if you haven’t already.

The Call of Duty franchise sale starts tomorrow when the Store publishes, so check out the full list of discounts below. The other featured franchises will be Final Fantasy and Tom Clancy. We’ll be offering up to 50% off various games, map packs, add-ons and bundled content, with up to 75% discounts awarded to our PS Plus subscribers. Each week, we’ll be revealing the full list of Spring Fever franchise deals in the Store Update blog post every Tuesday, so check back to see what content from your favorite franchises will be discounted. Spring Fever continues to bloom with new offers each week through April 2nd, so there’s a lot to look forward to!

SPRING FEVER NEW RELEASES:

3/13 – Journey: Enter the world of Journey, the third game from acclaimed indie developers thatgamecompany and presented by SCEA Santa Monica Studio.

• Available one week early to PS Plus subscribers – Includes an Exclusive Free Theme – One day left!
• Available to ALL PSN USERS starting tomorrow

3/20 – Rayman 3 HD: Rayman 3 HD takes Rayman on an epic journey through diverse worlds. This classic is remastered with HD and Trophy support.

• PlayStation Plus subscribers – 20% off

3/27 – Closure: In Closure’s dark and foreboding universe, the only things that exist are what you can see. Featuring 100 puzzles, an award-winning soundtrack and hand-drawn art.

• PlayStation Plus subscribers – 20% off

SPRING FEVER FRANCHISE SALE – THIS WEEK:

Call of Duty (3/13 – 3/19)

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

• PS3 Game + Variety Map Pack Bundle (Reg. $29.99, Sale $20.99, PS Plus $14.69)
• PS3 Game (Reg. $19.99, Sale $13.99, PS Plus $9.79)
• Variety Map Pack (Reg. $9.99, Sale $6.99, PS Plus $4.89)

Call of Duty Classic

• PS3 Game (Reg. $14.99, Sale $10.49, PS Plus $7.34)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

• PS3 Game + 2 DLC Bundle (Reg. $59.99 (value), Sale $41.99, PS Plus $- $29.39)
• PS3 Game (Reg. $29.99, Sale $20.99, PS Plus  $14.69)
• Stimulus Package – (Reg. $14.99, Sale $10.49, PS Plus $7.34)
• Resurgence Pack – (Reg. $14.99, Sale $10.49, PS Plus $7.34)

Call of Duty: World at War

• Map Pack Bundle (Reg. $24.99, Sale $17.49, PS Plus $12.24)
• Map Pack 1 (Reg. $9.99, Sale $6.99, PS Plus $4.89)
• Map Pack 2 (Reg. $9.99, Sale $6.99, PS Plus $4.89)
• Map Pack 3 (Reg. $9.99, Sale $6.99, PS Plus $4.89)

Call of Duty: Black Ops

• PS3 Game (Reg. $49.99, Sale $39.99)

It is an incredibly exciting time for PlayStation Network and PlayStation Plus. This week we not only saw a midnight launch of Mass Effect 3 on PlayStation Network, day and date with the retail release, but we offered access to one of the best games of the year and one of the best downloadable games ever—Journey—a whole week early to PlayStation Plus subscribers. Every month PlayStation Plus subscribers are getting more and more great content out of their subscriptions, and this week’s early access marked a new milestone.

PlayStation Plus now not only offers gamers early access to demos and betas but also to full downloadable games, in addition to the tons of free and discounted content and extra exclusive features like online storage for game saves and automatic updates. That’s why we are so excited to be able to deliver Journey, one of the most highly-anticipated games of the year, to our most die-hard fans, our PS Plus subscribers, a whole week early so they can experience it before everyone else.

Journey is blowing everyone away, journalists and the PlayStation Plus subscribers alike. With an average score of 92 and 12 perfect scores so far, Journey is the crowning achievement of thatgamecompany, one of our top-tier studios. Their games have grown in scale, quality, ambition and emotion, expanding from the relaxing, experimental flOw, to the accessible and award-winning ode to nature that was Flower, and now to Journey, a metaphorical representation of life, the people we meet and the connections we make during the courses of our lives.

Our fans know that PlayStation is about bringing authentic, innovative, and unique experiences to gamers that they can’t find anywhere else. Journey is exactly that, and represents what PSN is all about. With other exclusive games like Dead Nation, the PixelJunk series, Rochard and games like Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack and Escape Plan for PS Vita, PlayStation Network is the ultimate online game platform and premier content destination for gamers looking for the most unique gaming experiences available.

We are just getting warmed up! PS Plus subscribers – you’ve still got a few more days to download Journey before everyone else, and I know you’re going to love it and remember your experience with it for years to come. So check it out today with your PlayStation Plus exclusive early access, or starting next Tuesday when it is released to the entire PlayStation Nation. And don’t forget to watch for more early, exclusive, free and discounted content coming to PS Plus month in and month out.

One last Journey note: later this morning, thatgamecompany will be chatting live with fans on PlayStation.com. Come armed with your questions; we begin at 10am Pacific right here.

Just after 10:00AM on the second day of the Game Developers Conference, Jenova Chen sat next to me in the hallway outside of Sony's conference rooms. As hotel staff scurried back and forth in front of us, I set my recorder down and explained that I had no questions prepared. Instead, having recently completed Journey for the second time, I urged thatgamecompany's co-founder to talk about his work openly now that it reached the end of its three-year development...

PlayStation Plus members get a plethora of freebies and early-play opportunities this month, including access to Journey tomorrow, March 6, one week before its official launch. Tomorrow PS Plusers will also get Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix for super turbo thieving free. Sony will announce all winners of the 2012 PSN Gamers' Choice Awards, which will all be 50 percent off for Plus members for one week.

March forth, PS Plusers -- well, actually, March 6, because that's when all the PSN goodness begins. But you get the idea.

If you have been following Journey, then you’re probably as excited as I am about its release next week on March 13, as the first game in our Spring Fever event this year. The reviews so far have been fantastic, and I can’t wait to get online and experience the game online with other Journey fans.

If you caught Friday’s update from Kellee, the last line of her post about big news coming Monday probably had you wondering what sort of news might be coming. Well, earlier this morning I’m sure you saw this month’s PS Plus blog post revealing that Journey will be available this week for all PS Plus members, one week ahead of the normal release date. What’s more, this early access purchase comes with a bonus, an exclusive PS3 dynamic theme featuring some concept art from the game.

And if you’re not a Plus member, we are also launching a special pre-order program as well. You’ll be able to put your money down for the game and get hold of the same concept art dynamic theme as Plus members for doing so. Then when the game hits on March 13 during the normal Tuesday publish, just head to the store and download the game for free.

Watch the Blog and PS Store, because we’ll have a few more videos for Journey, an additional dynamic theme (free for Plus members) that will showcase some of the beautiful vistas in the game, and more. We’re also launching a dedicated tab for Journey on the PlayStation Facebook page where you can get an exclusive Journey PSN Avatar starting today, so head on over to check it out.

And don’t forget to head over to the Journey live dev chat page to sign up for a reminder, and come back this coming Friday at 10 AM PST to chat live with Jenova Chen (Creative Director) and Robin Hunicke (Executive Producer) from the Journey dev team.

You've heard what we think of Journey. How about the people who made it? In this developer video, the team at thatgamecompany discusses their philosophy of game development, their goals, and what motivates them to keep a small team.

Reviews for Journey are already sprinkling the vast wasteland of the web, but the full game doesn't officially launch until March 13, giving the hype plenty of time to blow away like sand in the wind. Sony is looking to fix that by launching Journey one week early for PS Plus members, at the standard $15 price point.

Journey will be available next week for PS Plus members, along with a bonus dynamic theme. The bonus theme is also available to PS Normal users by pre-ordering Journey from the PlayStation Store.

Could I brew you some hot chocolate? Or maybe a soothing herbal tea?

Hello again, everybody! Thank you so much for your enthusiasm after we announced the release date for Journey as March 13. It’s really the juice that has kept us going over these last three years. We’re anxiously awaiting the time when we’ll be able to see you all online and hear what you think of Journey. So we are bundles of nerves and energy right now! The first reviews of the game are starting to hit, and we’re extremely excited that reviewers seem to understand what we set out to achieve.

To help distract us from the pre-launch jitters, we recently had a small wrap party, in the same we did for flOw and Flower – by hosting a house party at the home of our former USC game design professor, and now friend, Tracy Fullerton. We like this kind of celebration because it’s just a friendly gathering for friends, family, and of course, Journey.

We then took our own journey out to Big Bear mountain, near Los Angeles (our home base). By coincidence more than actual design, we ended up having a very similar path in our lives as the character in Journey: our first team retreat during the production of Journey was to the Pismo Beach ocean dunes in 2009, and then the whole team ended up on the snowy mountaintop at Big Bear three years later!

But what I’m really here for is to show you a new developer diary video, featuring new footage both of the game and a behind-the-scenes look at the game and our team here at thatgamecompany and Sony Santa Monica. I hope you enjoy it!

I’m really excited to announce that a week from now, at 10 AM PST on Friday March 9, we’ll be participating in a live developer chat on PS.com. You can visit this page to sign up for a reminder so you can join us and pick our brains about Journey.

Be sure to check back here on the blog on Monday for some more big Journey news. We can’t wait to see you all online!