Thatgamecompany, the creative force behind acclaimed titles such as Flow, Flower, Journey, and the recent hit Sky: Children of the Light, has announced the formation of a new publishing division named Thatgamepublisher. This move mirrors a growing pattern in the independent game sector where studios that have scored a breakout success expand into publishing or investment roles to nurture other indie projects.
Recent examples include Innersloth, the creators of Among Us, which launched Outersloth in 2024 to back games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook; Kinetic Games, known for Phasmophobia, which started Kinetic Publishing and now supports titles such as Precognition from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, which introduced Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games, the developers of Peak, which created the Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a desire among small teams to reinvest surplus earnings into the broader indie ecosystem. "This is a very common pattern because number one, successful indie games usually are on a shoestring, and if the game becomes very successful, suddenly you have an overflow of cash," explains Jenova Chen, co‑founder of Thatgamecompany.
"But then you are a small team making games, you don't want to suddenly become a thousands‑person company, right? And then you can't really spend the money, so with additional money, where can you invest? You want to invest in something you understand, something you really are familiar with. So investing into other indie games is a natural choice for everyone, and that's why many indie companies are doing that." When Journey launched in 2012, the studio was far from flush with cash.
Chen has recounted to GamesIndustry.biz that the development of Journey nearly bankrupted the company and forced a wave of layoffs. The situation is dramatically different today.
Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has become a global phenomenon, especially in the Chinese market, and even inspired a feature‑film adaptation. The revenue generated by Sky now gives Thatgamecompany the financial latitude to back what it calls "emotionally ambitious" games, with budgets that can stretch into the AA range. Chen also points out that the distribution landscape has shifted. In the early 2010s, platforms like PlayStation controlled most of the channels through which games reached players.
"Today, the distribution network is owned by the players, who are influencers," he says. A successful indie title can amass millions of active users, and those players become the most powerful marketing engine.
"You have an audience who love a certain style of game and they're looking for more of the same. You actually have more influence for distribution than GameSpot, than IGN, than Steam, right?" he adds, underscoring why indie studios now feel confident stepping into publishing roles.
Another unique asset for Thatgamecompany is its demographic reach. Chen notes that roughly 70% of Sky's player base is female, giving the studio a broader gender balance than many of its peers.
"If we promote a game that appeals to both men and women, our audience will have a very unique overlap, because many of our players have never played games before," he explains. This insight shapes the kind of projects Thatgamepublisher intends to support. While the publisher has not yet disclosed the specific titles it has signed, Chen outlined the philosophical foundation of the venture in a press release: "When we first began making games, many people questioned whether interactive experiences could move players as deeply as film, literature or music.
Over the years, games have shown us what impact they can have on people. Lifelong friendships formed.
Personal struggles healed. Loved ones reconnected. Hope restored. Those moments convinced us that games are capable of touching lives in profound ways.
Thatgamepublisher exists because we believe there are countless creators around the world discovering new emotional frontiers for this medium, and we want to help them bring those visions to life." SJ Xue, Thatgamecompany's vice president of growth and corporate development and the lead of the publishing initiative, told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio is searching for games that "move people through play." He emphasized that genre, platform, or team size are not primary criteria. "We are open to teams of any size, projects at any stage, and ideas still being prototyped. What matters is not the label, genre, scale, or format, but whether the game reaches for meaningful emotional territory and uses interactivity to take players there," Xue said. He further clarified what "emotional" means to the publisher: "It can be joyful, chaotic, even funny.
The through line is always, will this stay with someone after the screen goes dark? If a game is chasing that, we want to have the conversation." This focus on lasting impact differentiates Thatgamepublisher from many indie funding outfits that typically limit themselves to sub‑million‑dollar projects.
Xue confirmed that Thatgamepublisher is prepared to back larger endeavors: "We are quite flexible when it comes to funding and project scale. We are open to working with everyone from solo developers with immense creativity to larger teams with AA‑level budgets." The terms of each publishing agreement will be tailored to the individual project's needs.
Xue highlighted the studio's developer‑centric mindset: "As developers ourselves, we understand how important it is to build partnerships that are fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly, while giving teams the support they need to realise the strongest version of their game." Unlike some newer indie publishers that adopt a modular, funding‑only approach, Thatgamepublisher will operate as a full‑service publisher. It will provide financing, production planning, platform strategy, launch support, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, has observed that the traditional publishing model is dying in favor of a more flexible, à la carte system where developers pick the services they need. Xue acknowledges this shift, stating that Thatgamepublisher can offer modular arrangements for funding, marketing, or other specific support, but that many emotionally driven projects benefit from an integrated partnership covering creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community, and platform strategy.
The ultimate goal, according to Xue, is to meet each project where it stands and shape the partnership around what will be most useful to the developer. He ties this back to the studio's core belief: "Games can connect people through shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in us." He notes that this philosophy has guided every Thatgamecompany title—from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky—and that the studio now wants to extend that legacy beyond its own development team. "We learned from our own work that emotionally ambitious games often need a different playbook. The heart of a project is not always easy to define at the beginning.
It can emerge through prototypes, iteration, quiet discoveries, and the right creative conversations. Our role is to help protect that process, giving developers the room, guidance, and alignment they need to discover the strongest version of their work," Xue explained. Drawing on its experience running Sky: Children of the Light as a live‑service title with over 300 million downloads and seven years of global operation, Thatgamecompany believes it can help other creators scale their emotionally resonant experiences without diluting their core feeling.
"By understanding the emotional truth of each game, building from its players and community, and allowing genuine resonance to create scale over time, we aim to help every project reach farther while staying true to the feeling at its heart," Xue concluded. In summary, Thatgamepublisher represents a strategic expansion for Thatgamecompany, leveraging its financial success, deep understanding of emotional game design, and a unique player demographic to support a new generation of indie developers seeking to craft experiences that linger long after the console is turned off.