Journey Collector's Edition | Amazon | £13.34 (save £2)
Journey Collector's Edition Price Comparison

Contains Journey, Flower, Flow and other thatgamecompany titles, with extras. Thanks to TheCrackInTime @ HUKD!

Journey exists for me now as a collection of glorious, almost ethereal memories, as if my three playthroughs of thatgamecompany's emotional, evocative experience were part of some waking dream.

Of course, much of that has to do with Austin Wintory's majestic, Grammy-winning orchestral score, which he's uploaded to YouTube with a bunch of screens, artwork, and insightful annotations giving interested parties a rather  compelling look into the making of the soundtrack.

Thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen has suggested that the time is not quite right for his company to enter the crowdfunding game just yet, noting that the most successful campaigns from the past year have been those from veteran developers trading on nostalgia.

'It Has To Be Much Bigger Than The PlayStation Platform'

Thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen has dropped a few tantalising tidbits about their next game, which will likely launch on more than just the PlayStation Network.

Thatgamecompany's Journey has gone and taken the coveted GameCity Prize this year, beating off competition from Fez, Catherine, and Mass Effect 3.

Minecraft took the inaugural award last year.

• What: Journey Collector's Edition (NTSC)
• Where: 365 Games
• Current Price: £23.99
• Journey Review

As far as I'm aware, the Journey Collector's Edition won't be coming out in Europe, making an import your only option. However, 365 seems to have dealt with the importing bit themselves, offering an attractive £23.99 price including delivery. This NTSC (region free) collection contains Journey, Flower, flOw, three extra games and some bonus content, making it a bit of a bargain for thatgamecompany fans.

CAVEAT: the bundled free month of PlayStation Plus and exclusive avatars can only be downloaded if you have an NTSC account, being as download codes are region specific. Even though games aren't. Haven't quite puzzled that one out yet, to be honest.

Exeter Cathedral: 'Gaming Could Transcend Age And Culture Gaps'

Last Sunday, Exeter Cathedral's clergy incorporated thatgamecompany's Journey into their evening service, letting the congregation play it and explore their relationship with God through a game. Ministers believe that games could potentially provide a "really creative way" of engaging with church-goers, and that "anything that helps people to make connections with God and express something of a response to God is worth exploring."

Sony and thatgamecompany have now fully confirmed the Journey Collector's Edition: a physical retail compilation containing Journey, Flower, flOw, a documentary, OSTs, three original minigames and a one-month trial subscription to PlayStation Plus. This new trailer aptly illustrates how utterly gorgeous thatgamecompany's lineup proved to be as well as showing off the new features.

The Journey Collector's Edition hasn't been confirmed for Europe as-yet, but here's hoping.

UPDATE: According to thatgamecompany, the Journey Collector's Edition will not be coming to Europe due to localisation costs. At least it's region free. thatgamecompany will also be enquiring whether Sony can make the extra content available on PSN.

Thatgamecompany clammed up after confirming the existence of the Journey Collector's Edition last week. We knew this boxed retail compilation would contain Flower and flOw as well as the recent arty phenomenon, but a full-page advert in OPM US (below) has now revealed what else to expect.

Namely: some PlayStation Plus membership, three brand new minigames, an exclusive documentary and "much more."

The Journey Collector's Edition hasn't yet been confirmed for a European release, but here's hoping. After all, a perfect 10 title deserves a nifty CE.

Superannuation recently spotted a Gamefly listing for something called the Journey Compilation, dated for August 2012, which got us all rather excited. thatgamecompany has now confirmed that a physical PS3 compilation is indeed headed to retail, and will contain Journey, Flower and flOw.

"Yes, the ‪#JourneyPS3‬ Collector's Edition is a thing," read the Twitter update, "and it includes ‪#flOwPS3‬ and ‪#FlowerPS3‬, but we can't say anything more."

So there. We'll find out more details soon, including whether it's headed to Europe.

Another week, another interview with Jenova Chen slamming the current array of video games for not being intellectually stimulating. This time around, Chen has suggested that the games industry is doing adults a disservice by not offering a huge deal by way of emotional and intellectual stimulation.

"My biggest complaint for computer games so far is they are not good enough for adults," says Chen.

Do you own a PS3? Well, if you do, that means you're probably more likely to be interested in "artistic games" than if you're a humble Wii or Xbox 360 owner...at least according to thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen.

Gorgeous PSN-exclusive Journey has a killer soundtrack courtesy of Austin Wintory, and thatgamecompany proudly reports that it has become a global iTunes phenomenon. The 18-track OST reached (and frequently topped) the overall top ten iTunes charts in over a dozen countries including Japan, Canada and Spain - and has dominated the soundtrack-specific charts in twenty nations. You can buy it here.

Journey's success is well-deserved, and with videogame scores becoming ever more accepted into the wider musical community, it's great to see another, smaller game's OST doing so well. In case you don't already know, Journey is one of this year's standout games, having garnered a 10/10 in our full review.

Journey developer Jenova Chen has suggested that the irritating "assholes" you find online are symptomatic of the nature of the games that have become prevalent in our industry today. You want to know why there are so many profanity-spewing $%@#!s on Xbox LIVE? Look no further than the FPS.

Thatgamecompany has proudly announced that Journey is the fastest-selling PSN game of all time, trouncing both first and third party titles in its wake. And, of course, demonstrating once again that innovation can be commercially successful.

"Thanks to you, 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," gushed director Jenova Chen 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!"

We know that a few of our readers have been wondering how well Journey is selling compared to traditional retail. While Chen was unwilling to talk numbers, I'd reckon it's probably doing pretty well. In case you haven't already bought it, we gave this experimental, innovative gem full marks in our Journey review.

"I Have Done Everything I Needed To Do"

After co-founding Thatgamecompany over six years ago (and overseeing Journey, Fl0w and Flower), developer Kellee Santiago has left Sony's successful boutique developer for pastures new.

Quite a personal little public service announcement, this. Thatgamecompany's latest and greatest is finally available today here in the UK, and all of you PS3 owners out there should go and buy it...and then tell us what you thought.

If you're tired of faceless shooters, if you're despairing at the thought of hacking your way through swarms of minions, if you're bored of beating things up, this might just be the antidote.

It's a sunny day, let some sunshine into your gaming life with Journey, and then please, please, let us know what you make of it. We'd love to hear about it.

Here's what we said in our Journey review:

"Like the finest feel-good films, or those books you read again and again until the title on the spine is illegible from creasing, Journey is a game that exhibits pure joy. It plays with it, subverts it, threatens to take it away at times, but the end result is something inherently euphoric, deeply personal and, dare I say, even a little bit spiritual as well."

Your turn.

Thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen has spoken about how "lucky" he and his team were to land a contract on PSN, ascribing Journey's critical success to a mixture of timing, people growing tired of traditional forms of gaming, and a greater appreciation and affinity for development, which comes with time.

Journey is brilliant. Absolutely stunning, and everyone who owns a PS3 should buy it when it comes out this Wednesday (tomorrow if you live in the States). Feast your eyes on the gorgeous visuals, read our Journey review, and you can also hear Carl and I gush further about its loveliness on PWNCAST Episode 5. Make sure you book a couple of hours off this week to play it through.

Then come back and tell us what you think. We'd love to get your feedback on this one!

Platform: PS3

Developer: thatgamecompany

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

WARNING: It's pretty impossible to review a game in any great depth without discussing mechanics, and themes to a certain extent. But going into Journey relatively free and fresh is, I feel, integral to one's first experience. Therefore, I would advise caution before proceeding, as there may well be minor spoilers of a sort.

The first time I reached the credits of Journey, as the first vocal track of a soundtrack that provokes smiles and tears in equal measure hit my ears, my eyes were already streaming with tears. I hadn't even noticed. As someone for whom the aural experience often makes a more significant impact, thatgamecompany's latest was absolutely devastating in terms of emotional wreckage. Not because there's anything in the "story" that's particularly sad, not because of an intricately woven narrative that pushes emotional buttons by numbers, but simply by being stunningly, breathtakingly, transcendentally beautiful.

Never has a game been so completely, or so succinctly, captured in its title. You begin as a rather nondescript figure, with toothpick legs, and glowing beads for eyes, attached to a face we never see, hidden by a nondescript cowled cloak. Stood, silently, amongst the whipping winds and undulating sands of the desert, the camera pans upwards to reveal the mountain ahead of you - a split peak that glows brightly at its summit. There are no text prompts, no mission statements, no instructions save brief controller inputs. Yet your objective is clear: journey to the top of the mountain.

What follows is a narrative of exploration and discovery that is entirely bereft of interruption, or anything that would detract from the experience. No dialogue, no in-game text, just you, the landscape before you, and Austin Wintory's captivating soundtrack. Relying solely on aesthetic experience, to both set tone and provide signifiers for pressing onwards, Journey is a rather unique game.