Game developer thatgamecompany appeared on stage at the Apple Event yesterday with a title that will be launching exclusively on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV soon, called Sky. The game is described as a "social adventure" where players navigate a world in the clouds alongside their friends, and marks thatgamecompany's first game in five years, since 2012's Journey.

a11 bionic iphone x
Journey was a game that automatically matched players with random other people online throughout the adventure, but it was impossible to join up with a specific friend. In its press release for the game, along with a new interview with president and creative director Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany explained that many fans wrote them after Journey and asked for "a game where they could play together" with friends and family members.

The idea of a wider audience playing the game on smartphones, not just video game consoles, led the developer to launch Sky mobile first and exclusively on Apple devices. This will make it easier to play the game with others, and thatgamecompany said it is "a game specially created to be played, and shared, among loved ones and family." During the keynote, the company confirmed that up to eight players from anywhere in the world can play together at a time.

We wanted as many people to love games, and so we were encouraged to explore this idea at thatgamecompany. Which brings our games, for the first time, to mobile – a platform that many have access to, the world over.

It’s hard to explain the game, but a good place would be to say that Sky is a game specially created to be played, and shared, among loved ones and family. If you can imagine the delight of visiting a theme park where lasting memories are made, we envision Sky will sometimes feel like that.

In a six-minute interview with Geoff Keighley, thatgamecompany president and creative director Jenova Chen -- who was on stage during Apple's keynote -- said that it's "difficult" to summarize the entire game, but many of its mechanics surround "giving" to and helping out other players. Sky is set in a "whimsical" world above the clouds, where a great civilization once resided but is currently in ruins. Chen mentioned that the idea behind this world and the game as a whole was to build a theme park of sorts, where players can return daily and spend minutes or hours discovering new lands alone or with friends.


He also hinted at frequent updates and changes coming to the world, stating that it is "constantly evolving" and when players return there might be new places and sections of the world that open up that weren't there before. Because of the consistent additions and new discoveries happening in the game, Chen compared Sky to a television series that players can return to and experience new chapters in the story and game environment.

A specific release date and price point for Sky have still not been revealed by thatgamecompany, but Chen mentioned that it should arrive on tvOS and iOS "this winter." The company encourages those interested to stay up-to-date on development through a newsletter sign-up than can be found on the game's webpage.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Caution)

Top Rated Comments

RamGuy Avatar
85 months ago
I wonder how the A10X Fusion, and even the new A11Bionic, compares to the Nintendo Switch processor...
We already know as the Nintendo Switch uses a standard NVIDIA Tegra X1;

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-A10X-Fusion-SoC-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.227440.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Tegra-X1-Maxwell-GPU.137006.0.html

As you can see the Apple A10X demolishes the Tegra X1 in terms of CPU performance in single-threaded and is also better in multi-threaded scenarios. On GPU the A10X is slightly behind the Tegra X1.


The Apple A11 has some impressive improvements over the A10(X) so single-threaded should be even better and multi-threaded is much better. The Tegra X1 isn't in the same league, not at all.

On GPU we don't really know. The "X" versions of the SoC's tend to have greater GPU so we don't know whether the regular non-X A11 will outperform the A10X on GPU performance. A11 is Apple's very first using their own in-house GPU, previous generations have used custom ones from PowerVR.
[doublepost=1505311242][/doublepost]
'Journey' Rip-off
It's from the same company..
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Schizoid Avatar
85 months ago
All I can see on any of these demos and examples is that bloody notch!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wolfshades Avatar
85 months ago
I'm intrigued enough by the game to want to try it out. Can't tell much from the demo, but the experience seems to mimimc some of my best dreams. Hope the reality matches the hype - but so far it looks impressive.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mookc1 Avatar
85 months ago
A game for snowflakes. Yawn......
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Aeolius Avatar
85 months ago
A game for snowflakes. Yawn......
Combat games are not everyone's cup of tea, you know. Personally I have not played a console game in years and I only step foot in GameStop when my kids want to go (they hate it when I go in because I like to ask for fictional games, Pan Flute Hero and Sweeney Todd for the Wii are favorites).

I prefer games of pure exploration. Endless Ocean was a personal favorite, though Aquaria was also very enjoyable.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vanilla35 Avatar
85 months ago
That was a very pleasant looking game to watch. I hope it's more engaging than he made it seem with the "you can do everything with one finger" line.

However that's kind of the lameness behind Apple TV. They seriously need a controller, or better remote.
[doublepost=1505310620][/doublepost]
All I can see on any of these demos and examples is that bloody notch!
Yeah worst design ever.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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