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 indie sector where studios that achieve breakout success expand into publishing or investment roles to nurture other independent 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 is supporting titles such as Precognition from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair, the team behind Palworld, which has opened Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games, the developers of Peak, which now operate under the Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a desire among small studios 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‑of‑people 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." Thatgamecompany’s own history illustrates the stakes involved.
When Journey launched in 2012, the project nearly bankrupted the studio and forced a wave of layoffs, as Chen recounted to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year. The situation is dramatically different now.
Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has become a massive commercial triumph, especially in the Chinese market, and even inspired a feature film. The revenue generated by Sky has given Thatgamecompany the financial breathing room to pursue what it calls "emotionally ambitious games" through its new publishing arm. Chen also notes a shift in how games reach audiences.
In the era of Journey, distribution channels were dominated by platform holders like PlayStation. "Today, the distribution network is owned by the players, who are influencers," he says. A successful indie title can amass millions of players who become its most effective promoters, often surpassing traditional media outlets such as GameSpot, IGN, or even Steam in reach.
This democratization of distribution empowers indie studios to become publishers themselves, leveraging their own communities to amplify new releases. Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany is its audience demographic. Chen points out that roughly 70% of Sky’s player base is female, giving the studio a larger female reach than most other game companies.
"If we promote or feature a game that would be appealing to men and women equally, our audience is going to have a very unique overlap, because there are many of our players who have never played games before," he adds. While the exact slate of titles that Thatgamepublisher will support remains under wraps, Chen shared the publisher’s guiding philosophy 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 leader of the publishing initiative, elaborated on the type of projects the studio seeks. "We are looking for titles that move people through play," Xue told GamesIndustry.biz.
"The typical genre or platform restrictions would not apply to us. 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 clarified that "emotional" can encompass a wide spectrum—joy, chaos, humor, melancholy—as long as the experience lingers after the screen goes dark. He emphasized flexibility in funding, noting that while many indie publishers focus on sub‑million‑dollar budgets, Thatgamepublisher is prepared to support larger, AA‑level endeavors.
"We are quite flexible when it comes to funding and project scale," he said. "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 deal will be tailored to the specific needs of the project. Xue highlighted the studio’s developer‑first 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." Thatgamepublisher will operate as a full‑service publisher, offering not only capital but also production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This contrasts with some indie publishers that adopt a modular, funding‑only model.
Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, recently told GamesIndustry.biz that "the old school publishing model is dead" and that modern developers can pick and choose services such as marketing, console porting, or financing based on their needs. Xue echoed this sentiment, stating that Thatgamepublisher can provide modular arrangements when appropriate, but often prefers an integrated partnership for emotionally ambitious projects where creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community, and platform strategy are tightly interwoven.
In summary, Thatgamepublisher aims to meet each project where it stands, shaping collaborations around the most useful support for developers. The ultimate goal, according to Xue, is to harness the belief that games can forge shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in people.
Drawing on the studio’s own legacy—from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky—Thatgamepublisher seeks to empower creators worldwide to explore new emotional frontiers, protect the core feeling of their games, and help those experiences reach a broad, resonant audience.