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 called Thatgamepublisher. This move follows a growing pattern in the independent game sector where studios that have achieved breakout success leverage their newfound resources to support other indie developers.
Notable examples include Innersloth, the creators of Among Us, which launched the Outersloth label in 2024 to back games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook; Kinetic Games, the team behind Phasmophobia, which introduced Kinetic Publishing with titles such as Precognition from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair, known for Palworld, which started Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games, the studio behind Peak, which now operates under the Evil Landfall imprint. The trend reflects a desire among small teams to reinvest profits into projects they understand and value.
Jenova Chen, co‑founder of Thatgamecompany, explains the logic behind the shift: "Successful indie games are often built on very tight budgets. When a title blows up, you suddenly have a surplus of cash, but you don’t necessarily want to turn your boutique studio into a massive corporation. The sensible thing to do with extra capital is to fund other indie projects that share your sensibilities. That's why many indie developers are stepping into publishing." The financial landscape was dramatically different when Journey launched in 2012.
Chen has recounted to GamesIndustry.biz that the development of Journey nearly pushed the studio to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in a wave of layoffs. Fast forward to today, Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has become a global phenomenon, especially in the Chinese market, and has even spawned a feature film.
The revenue generated by Sky now gives Thatgamecompany the means to invest in what it terms "emotionally ambitious" games, a category that seeks to move players on a deeper, more personal level. Chen also points out that the way games reach audiences has evolved. In the early 2010s, distribution channels were largely controlled by platform owners such as Sony.
Today, however, the distribution network is effectively owned by the players themselves, many of whom act as influencers. "A successful indie title can amass millions of players who become its most powerful marketing engine," Chen says.
"If you have an audience that loves a certain style of game, you can reach them directly, often more effectively than traditional media outlets like GameSpot or IGN." Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany is its demographic reach. Chen notes that roughly 70 % of Sky's player base is female, giving the studio a uniquely balanced audience compared to many other developers. "When we highlight a game that appeals to both men and women, we tap into an overlap that many publishers simply don’t have," he adds. Although the specific titles in Thatgamepublisher's initial slate remain under wraps, Chen shared the publisher's overarching mission in a press release: "When we first began making games, many doubted that interactive experiences could evoke the same depth of feeling as film, literature, or music.
Over the years, games have proven they can forge lifelong friendships, heal personal struggles, reconnect loved ones, and restore hope. Those moments convinced us that games can touch lives profoundly.
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 aren't bound by genre, platform, or scale," Xue told GamesIndustry.biz.
"What matters is whether a game can reach meaningful emotional territory and use interactivity to guide players there. Emotional can mean joy, chaos, humor—anything that stays with a player after the screen goes dark. If a game aspires to that, we want to talk." While many indie publishers focus on micro‑budget titles under $1 million, Thatgamepublisher is prepared to back larger, AA‑level endeavors.
Xue emphasized the label's flexibility: "We work with solo creators who have boundless imagination as well as larger teams with more substantial budgets. The terms of each deal—revenue share, recoup schedules, and so on—are tailored to the project's specific needs. As developers ourselves, we understand the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly partnerships." Thatgamepublisher will operate as a full‑service publisher, offering funding, production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development.
This comprehensive approach contrasts with some newer indie publishers that adopt a modular, funding‑only model. Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, remarked earlier this year that "the old school publishing model is dead," noting that developers now prefer to pick and choose the services they need—whether that's marketing support, console porting assistance, or pure financing.
Xue echoed this sentiment, stating that Thatgamepublisher can provide modular arrangements but often prefers integrated partnerships for emotionally ambitious projects, where creative development, production, positioning, and community engagement are tightly interwoven. The rationale for developers to partner with Thatgamepublisher rests on the studio's founding philosophy: games can connect people through shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in humanity. Chen reflected, "That belief has shaped everything we’ve built—from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky.
Yet we recognize that the journey is bigger than any single studio. Creators around the world are pushing the boundaries of what games can make us feel, and we want to help those ideas reach players." According to Xue, the publisher’s role is to safeguard the often‑intangible "heart" of a project, giving creators the space, guidance, and resources needed to refine their vision. He highlighted the company's own experience running Sky: Children of the Light as a live‑service title with over 300 million downloads and seven years of global operation.
This background, he argues, demonstrates how deeply felt experiences can scale without losing their core emotional impact. In summary, Thatgamepublisher aims to identify and nurture games that aspire to linger in players' memories long after the final frame. By combining a deep understanding of emotional storytelling with the infrastructure of a full‑service publisher, the label hopes to help indie developers turn ambitious, heartfelt concepts into games that resonate worldwide.