Kellee Santiago leaves Thatgamecompany as Journey breaks PSN records

Journey and Flower developer Thatgamecompany's co-founder and president, Kellee Santiago, is leaving the small studio

Journey and Flower developer Thatgamecompany's co-founder and president, Kellee Santiago, is leaving the small studio, she recently revealed to Gamasutra.

Santiago told Gamasutra that her departure from the company was amicable, but suggested that it's "likely" more staff are leaving the team. She explained, "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 not revealing her destination, Santiago hopes to "take what I've learned and use it to support more teams, more projects... and really, hopefully, help in accelerating the growth of video games as a medium." Santiago declined to comment further to Vox Games about her leaving.

In a joint statement, fellow co-founder Jenova Chen and the rest of Thatgamecompany said, "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."

The announcement comes alongside a PlayStation Blog post in which Chen revealed, "Journey has officially broken PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store sales records, surpassing all games ever released on the PlayStation Network to become the fastest-selling game ever released on PlayStation Store, in both the SCEA and SCEE regions."

Update: Thatgamecompany producer Robin Hunicke has confirmed that she has also left the studio, and is now providing "leadership in game design" for the web-based MMO Glitch. You can read more about her decision on her blog.