Think about it. In both games:

1. You see the endpoint of your journey at the start of the game (red smoke in SotN, glowing mountain in Journey) and also periodically throughout the game.
2. You pass through the ruins of a civilization on your way.
3. There are no words in the whole game, only signs.
4. You have a companion almost from beginning to the very end (although in Journey it depends on a few factors whether you'll have one or not)
5. You can communicate with your companion by pressing one button and that's the only way of doing it.
6. You optionally (though sometimes it's required) save those belonging to the ruined civilization—souls of dead shamans in SotN, cloth creatures in Journey.
7. There's a "magically-empowered voice" ability. Spirit bark in SotN, loud chirping in Journey.
8. There's a lot of sliding down. Ice and rivers in SotN, sand in Journey.
9. Near the end of your journey, you die, then get resurrected by spirits.
10. At the end of your journey, you kind of die again or ascend to a higher plane of existence.

The similarities are so striking that I'm surprised I haven't been able to find a thread about this on this forum. It would be very hard to believe the devs didn't look at Journey and design their game based on it.
That said, I'm still looking forward to the sequel!