Thatgamecompany, the creative force behind acclaimed titles such as Flow, Flower, Journey, and the recent hit Sky: Children of the Light, has announced the creation of a new publishing division named Thatgamepublisher. This move follows a growing pattern in the independent game sector where studios that have achieved a breakout success use their newfound resources to back other indie developers. Recent examples include Innersloth’s Outersloth, which was launched in 2024 to support games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook, Kinetic Games’ Kinetic Publishing, which has added titles such as Precognition to its roster, Pocketpair’s Pocketpair Publishing, and Landfall Games’ Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a broader shift: successful indie creators are turning into publishers to nurture projects that share their artistic vision.
Jenova Chen, co‑founder of Thatgamecompany, explains the rationale behind the shift. "When an indie game that was built on a shoestring budget becomes a massive hit, you suddenly have a surplus of cash.
But you don’t necessarily want to turn your small, tightly‑knit team into a thousand‑person corporation. The logical place to invest that extra capital is in something you understand deeply – other indie games. That’s why many indie studios are moving into publishing." Thatgamecompany’s own journey to financial stability was anything but smooth.
The studio’s 2012 masterpiece Journey nearly bankrupted the company, resulting in a wave of layoffs, as Chen recounted to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year. However, the release of Sky: Children of the Light in 2019 dramatically altered the picture. The game has performed exceptionally well worldwide, especially in the Chinese market, and even inspired a feature‑film adaptation. The revenue generated by Sky now provides Thatgamecompany with the means to fund what it calls "emotionally ambitious" games.
Chen also notes a fundamental change in how games reach players. In the era of Journey, distribution channels were dominated by platform holders like Sony. Today, the distribution network belongs to the players themselves, who act as influencers and organic promoters. "A successful indie title can now have millions of players who become its most powerful distribution channel," Chen says.
"If your audience loves a particular style of game, they will actively seek out similar experiences, often more effectively than traditional media outlets or storefronts." Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany lies in its audience demographics. Roughly 70 % of Sky’s player base is female, giving the studio a broader gender reach than many of its peers. Chen believes this unique overlap can help promote games that appeal to both men and women, especially titles that attract newcomers to gaming. While the exact slate of games that Thatgamepublisher has already signed remains under wraps, Chen shared the publisher’s guiding philosophy in a press release: "When we first started making games, many doubted whether interactive experiences could move people as deeply as film, literature, or music.
Over the years, we have seen games forge lifelong friendships, heal personal struggles, reconnect loved ones, and restore hope. Those moments convinced us that games can touch lives in profound ways. Thatgamepublisher exists because we believe countless creators worldwide are exploring new emotional frontiers, and we want to help them bring those visions to life." SJ Xue, Thatgamecompany’s vice‑president of growth and corporate development and the leader of the publishing effort, elaborated on the type of projects the new label is seeking.
"We are looking for games that move people through play," Xue told GamesIndustry.biz. "Genre, platform, or team size are not constraints for us.
Whether the idea is still a prototype or a near‑complete product, what matters is whether the experience reaches for meaningful emotional territory and uses interactivity to carry players there." Xue emphasizes that "emotional" can encompass a wide spectrum—joy, chaos, humor, melancholy—so long as the experience lingers after the screen goes dark. This focus on lasting impact shapes the publisher’s selection criteria more than any traditional metric.
In contrast to many indie publishers that limit themselves to sub‑million‑dollar budgets, Thatgamepublisher is prepared to back larger, AA‑scale projects. "We are flexible regarding funding and project size," Xue says.
"We welcome solo creators with huge imagination as well as larger teams that need AA‑level resources." The terms of each publishing deal will be tailored to the individual project's needs. Xue notes that, as former developers themselves, the team understands the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly agreements. The label intends to provide a full suite of services, including financing, production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development.
This comprehensive approach differentiates Thatgamepublisher from other indie publishers like Outersloth or Evil Landfall, which often adopt a modular, funding‑only model. Industry observers, such as Luke Keighran of Silver Lining Interactive, have argued that the traditional publishing model is obsolete, with modern developers preferring to pick and choose the services they need. Xue acknowledges this shift, stating that Thatgamepublisher can offer modular arrangements for funding, marketing, or any other specific support. However, for projects with an emotionally ambitious core, the label believes an integrated partnership—spanning creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community, and platform strategy—delivers the greatest value and protects the game's emotional essence.
Ultimately, the goal is to meet each developer where they are and shape the partnership around what will be most beneficial. Xue points to the studio’s founding belief that games can connect people through shared emotional experiences as the driving force behind the new venture. "From Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky, we have always aimed to create experiences that resonate deeply. We now want to help other creators expand that vision worldwide." He adds that emotionally ambitious games often require a different playbook: the heart of a project may not be evident at the outset but can emerge through prototyping, iteration, quiet discovery, and thoughtful conversation.
Thatgamepublisher’s role is to protect that process, offering developers the space, guidance, and alignment needed to uncover the strongest version of their work. Drawing on its own experience running Sky: Children of the Light—a live‑service title with over 300 million downloads and seven years of global operation—the studio believes it understands how to scale heartfelt experiences without diluting their impact. By focusing on the emotional truth of each game, building from its community, and allowing genuine resonance to drive growth, Thatgamepublisher aims to help every project reach a broader audience while staying true to its core feeling.
In summary, Thatgamepublisher represents Thatgamecompany’s evolution from a singular indie studio into a full‑service publisher dedicated to fostering games that move players on an emotional level. With flexible funding, a commitment to fair partnerships, and a deep understanding of how emotionally driven experiences can captivate worldwide audiences, the new label is poised to become a significant catalyst for the next generation of indie games.