Journey, the follow-up to thatgamecompany's Flower, a similarly poetic experience, has finally received a price and a release date. Jenova Chen, Creative Director on the project, took to the blog world to make the announcement, which is sure to please fans of his and thatgamecompany's artistic work.

That announcement, of course, is the game's release date and its price point. On March 13th, PSN members will be able to pick up thatgamecompany's latest opus for $14.99. Much like Flower kicked off Spring Fever 2009 (Sony's version of Microsoft's downloadable collections), Journey will kick off the 2012 version.

Starting first with the game flOw and then the aforementioned Flower, all of which were PSN exclusives, thatgamecompany has cemented themselves as a developer that focuses more on the artistic aspects of game creation rather than going for the flashy high-octane experience. Journey, in many respects, is the culmination of lessons learned on those previous games, but, by the same token, feels like a natural extension of them. Players will take on the role of an unnamed protagonist, tasked with wandering through a sprawling desert towards a far off mountaintop, and may even encounter players on their own journeys along the way.

One of the game's most unique features is its online connectivity, which sees live gamers and NPCs interacting with the player all without the use of a traditional set of communication tools. There's no way of knowing who you're interacting with, whether they are a living being or not, but that's all part of the magic of it all.

For Chen, each of his previous games has taken on a different theme or genre, and Journey's is about experiencing "a person's life passage and their intersections with other's." It's really hard to encapsulate the experience of playing Journey, which had a small beta late last year, but once players get their hands on it they will find themselves mesmerized.

The game has the poetic grace of Uncharted 3's desert sequence, wrapped up in an art style that harkens back to Team Ico, all of which come together with stunning beauty. This is one of 2012's can't miss experiences, and it's coming very soon.

Are you ready to get your hands on Journey? Do you think it's possible for a game like Journey to break into the mainstream like many other artistic downloadable titles?

Journey releases March 13, 2012 for the PS3.

Source: PlayStation Blog