thatgamecompany co-founder and president, Kellee Santiago, has announced that she will be leaving the development studio, with plans to explore a new path.
Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago formed thatgamecompany back in 2006 and entered into a three game contract with Sony. Now, after having released Flow, Flower and Journey, the studio is moving on to other pursuits and Santiago has elected to go in a different direction.
According to Gamasutra, others may be leaving the studio as well, but Santiago assured them that the departure was on good terms.
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.
On top of that, founding a company whose explicit goal was to do new types of game development really allowed me to be able to try out new processes for game development, to try out new ideas.
She then went on to explain why she no longer wishes to work alongside Jenova Chen, pointing to the fact that the direction TGC is headed follows more closely to his vision rather than hers. Over the past three games, Santiago has been supporting Chen’s ideas and now wants to break free and work on “accelerating the growth of video games as a medium” in her own way.
Chen has since released a statement that bids Santiago farewell and wishes her the best as she pursues a new and exciting path.
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.
We here at PlayStation LifeStyle also want to wish Kellee the best, as we can’t wait to see what sort of creative gaming experience she crafts next.
