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 reflects a broader industry pattern in which independent studios that achieve breakout success expand into publishing or investment roles to nurture other indie projects. In recent years, developers like Innersloth—known for Among Us—created Outersloth in 2024 to back games such as Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook. Earlier this year, Kinetic Games, the team behind Phasmophobia, launched Kinetic Publishing, adding titles like Precognition from Sam Barlow’s Immortality series to its roster.
Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, introduced Pocketpair Publishing, while Landfall Games, creators of Peak, started the Evil Landfall label. The trend underscores how financial windfalls from a single blockbuster can be redirected to support a broader ecosystem of indie creators.
"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." Thatgamecompany's own journey was far from a cash‑rich story when Journey launched in 2012. Chen has recounted to GamesIndustry.biz that the development of Journey nearly bankrupted the studio and forced a mass lay‑off of staff.
The situation has changed dramatically with Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, which has become a global phenomenon, especially in the Chinese market, and even inspired a feature film. The sustained revenue from Sky now gives Thatgamecompany the financial breathing room to fund what it calls "emotionally ambitious" games.
Chen also notes a shift in distribution dynamics. In the era of Journey, distribution channels were controlled by platform holders like Sony.
"Today, the distribution network is owned by the players, who are influencers," he says. A successful indie title can now reach millions of players directly through social media, streaming, and word‑of‑mouth, turning the player base itself into a powerful marketing engine.
"You have an audience who love friend‑focused games and they're looking for more of the same. You actually have more influence for distribution than GameSpot, than IGN, than Steam," Chen adds.
Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany is its demographic reach. Chen points out that roughly 70% of Sky's player base is female, giving the studio a larger female audience than most game companies worldwide. "If we promote a game that appeals to both men and women, our audience will have a unique overlap, because many of our players have never played games before," he explains. Thatgamepublisher has already signed a "couple" of projects, though details remain under wraps.
In the official press release, Chen articulated the publisher's mission: "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 effort, told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio is searching for titles that "move people through play." He emphasized that genre, platform, or team size are not primary filters.
"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.
"'Emotional' can mean many things," Xue continued. "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." While many indie publishers focus on sub‑million‑dollar budgets, Thatgamepublisher is prepared to back larger endeavors. "We are quite flexible when it comes to funding and project scale," Xue explained. "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 project's needs.
Xue highlighted that, as developers themselves, the team understands the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly agreements. The publisher aims to provide a full suite of services—including financing, production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development—rather than a limited funding‑only model.
This comprehensive approach contrasts with other indie publishers like Outersloth or Evil Landfall, which often adopt modular, à‑la‑carte service packages. Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, recently told GamesIndustry.biz that "the old school publishing model is dead," and that modern developers prefer to pick and choose the services they need, whether that be marketing, console porting assistance, or full‑scale production support. Xue echoed this sentiment, stating that Thatgamepublisher can offer modular arrangements for funding, marketing, or other targeted support, but believes that emotionally driven projects often benefit from an integrated partnership across creative development, production, positioning, community building, and platform strategy.
Ultimately, the goal is to meet each project where it is and shape the partnership around what will be most useful to the developer. Xue summed up the philosophy: "Games can connect people through shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in us. That belief has shaped everything Thatgamecompany has made, from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky.
We know this path is bigger than the work of one studio. Around the world, creators are exploring their own ways to expand what games can make people feel, and we want to help those ideas find their way to players. By protecting the creative process, providing the right resources, and leveraging our experience running Sky as an emotional live‑service with over 300 million downloads, we aim to help each project reach farther while staying true to the feeling at its heart.