I've been a dedicated follower of indie game maker thatgamecompany since their beginnings, and they've never disappointed with their releases. But things are about to really ramp up for them.

The Santa Monica-based company has just ended their game deal with PlayStation, and now they've raised $5.5 million from Benchmark Capital. Benchmark are the guys that funded Riot Games, makers of League of Legends, and more recently, Meteor Entertainment, the folks behind the awesome upcoming free-to-play title Hawken.

What to do with all that freedom and cash? Why not make more games for more platforms, reaching out to wider audiences? Founder Jenova Chen tells GamesBeat that he wants to "spread out" now, and that the funding will enable TGC to develop and release games independently. 

"We got so many emails from fans saying they wished they could play our games on other platforms," Chen said. "We make games for human beings, not just gamers. Young, old, men, women, and from all countries. We want to change the concept of what a game is and show society what a game can be."

Chen confirmed that a new title is in the works, and it will definitely be a cross-platform game.

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

ShadeOfLight

"Chen confirmed that a new title is in the works, and it will definitely be a cross-platform game."

MonkeyKing1969

When he says, "We make games for human beings, not just gamers." It soudns like he meams the next game will be on iOS and Android...and PS3 Something tells me that anyone with Nintendo or Microsoft hardware will be sorely disappointed in what Chen means by 'cross platform'.

Scissors

Flower was alright & Journey was one of the best games on PS3, so whatever there next game is I'm interested.

Oishidesu

Who here he's that when the next game is released on XBLA, those retarded 12 year olds who said that Journey and Flower were gay because they were on the PeeEss3, are gonna come out, and praise ThatGameCompany?

I'm already betting $100K on Sofik coming out!! Anyone else?

Oishidesu

Meant "bets", not "he's"

Dtoid needs an edit button!!

Alan Argentina

Definitely excited to see where they go next. As long as it's got color, I'm in.

defki

@Oishidesu

200 on Sofik claiming it's a new revolutionary experience only on XBLA.

Brian Boudreaux

Not sure how I feel about this.

Without Sony throwing infinite money at them, and without Santa Monica being there with them during development, I wonder if TGC will be able to get better like they did from Flow to Flower to Journey. I mean, with a publisher, and Santa Monica, it still took them 3 years to finish Journey. I doubt the same quality will be had with them being soley independent, and with just 5 million dollhairs. The team is like 12 people I believe.

And making iOS and Android games will bring gaming lower, not higher in people's minds.

Heracles aka TheNopeMan

If it's a full legnth, $60 game from TGC, I'll be happy.

If it's some bullshit Android iOS game that I'll only play on the herrington, well...shit.

unsilentwill

Please, please don't be free to play like League or Hawken...

themizarkshow

Glad to hear other console dedicated people will get to play their future games, but I am sad to see them stray from the Playstation exclusives too. Their games were an awesome draw to the platform... and I'm sure it was a pretty "safe" environment to work in with Sony throwing resources at you as needed.

LK4O4

I'm really glad to see thatgamecompany going multi-platform, as they've been one of the indie developers that I make a point to follow. However, I'm still wondering how they'll do without Kellee Santiago there. I wish them the best, though!

ctg867

Let's hope thatgamecompany doesn't end up like Insomniac and Ninja Theory. Companies that leave Sony second party have a history of failure once they loose the support of their publishing house.

Making games for "human beings" sounds like they're about to start doing shit Facebook and iOS games. So yea, I can already see the parallels to Insomniac. Not looking particularly good IMO. Let's hope for the best.

Raby

Not indie

Evergreen

A few weeks ago I was drunk at home with nothing much to do. Somehow, I ended up loading up Flow, which was one of the first PSN games I purchased, but I never really played it. Somehow, I found myself glued to the screen and twisting my controller around for 2 hours. I still have no idea if I was playing it right, but damn it, I had way more fun with it than I thought I would!

Rorek

Thatgamecompany - of itself is not really a problem. While I do think they tend to be a bit full of themselves, and can even be a bit w-a-y too hipster at times; it is the people, and fans that tend to tick me off when it comes to them. Treating their games like some sort of new testimate, and over hyping them to unprecidented proportions.

Especially that junk called - Journey. Yes, I went there. I swear between petty kickstarter hand-outs, and everyone calling themselves "indie", and other developers acting like self-entitled pisants the industry, and the people have lost their minds.

Does thatgamecompany make decent games? Sure, but certainly not nowhere near god-like which deserve worshipping.

Sat

Not sure what to think. I'd love to see the games on PC and more, but at the same time, I'm sure the link with Sony was a great thing. They had money and freedom to do the stuff they did.

yesmynameissumo

Cool. As long as I can play still play their games on a Sony platform, I'm good.