Thatgamecompany, the acclaimed developer behind titles such as Flow, Flower, Journey, and the recent hit Sky: Children of the Light, has announced the creation of a new publishing division called Thatgamepublisher. This move follows a growing pattern in the indie sector where studios that achieve a breakout success expand into publishing or funding roles to nurture other independent creators. Earlier this year, Innersloth, the team behind the viral phenomenon Among Us, launched Outersloth, backing games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook. Likewise, Kinetic Games, known for Phasmophobia, introduced Kinetic Publishing, adding titles such as Precognition—crafted by Sam Barlow, the mind behind the Immortality series—to its roster.
Pocketpair, the developers of Palworld, have also started Pocketpair Publishing, while Landfall Games, creators of the popular Peak series, now operate under the Evil Landfall label. The trend illustrates a shift toward indie studios leveraging their newfound capital to become patrons of the next wave of innovative games. "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, Thatgamecompany was far from flush with cash. Chen has recounted to GamesIndustry.biz that the development of Journey nearly pushed the studio to bankruptcy and resulted in a mass layoff of staff.
The financial landscape has altered dramatically since that precarious period. 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 sustained revenue from Sky now enables Thatgamecompany to allocate profits toward what Chen describes as "emotionally ambitious games"—projects that aim to touch players on a deeper, more personal level. Chen also notes a fundamental change in how games reach audiences.
In the early 2010s, distribution channels were dominated by platform holders such as Sony's PlayStation network. Today, however, the distribution power has shifted to the players themselves, who act as influencers and organic marketers.
A successful indie title can amass millions of players who, in turn, become the most effective promotional engine—far surpassing traditional outlets like GameSpot, IGN, or even Steam. "You have an audience who, let's say, love friendslop games, and they're looking for other friendslop games.
You actually have more influence for distribution than GameSpot, than IGN, than Steam, right? So that's why I think today indie game studios are more likely to become publishers – they also have additional distribution reach," Chen adds. Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany lies in 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.
This unique overlap means that a game appealing to both men and women could find a receptive, diverse audience that includes many players who have never previously engaged with video games. While the specific titles slated for Thatgamepublisher remain under wraps, Chen has confirmed that the label has already signed a "couple" of projects.
In the official press release, he 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 lead of the publishing effort, told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio is hunting for games that "move people through play." He emphasized that genre, platform, or team size are not limiting factors. "The typical genre or platform restrictions would not apply to us," Xue said. "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 elaborated on the definition of "emotional" by noting it can encompass joy, chaos, humor, or any feeling that lingers after the console is turned off. "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," he remarked.
Unlike many indie publishers that focus on sub‑million‑dollar budgets, Thatgamepublisher is prepared to back larger, AA‑level projects. "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 financial terms of each deal will be customized to suit the individual project's needs. Xue highlighted that, as developers themselves, the team understands the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly partnerships.
This philosophy extends to the suite of services offered. Thatgamepublisher positions itself as a full‑service publisher, handling everything from funding and production planning to platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This contrasts with publishers like Outersloth or Evil Landfall, which primarily provide funding and let developers source other services independently.
Industry observers, such as Luke Keighran of Silver Lining Interactive, have noted that the classic, monolithic publishing model is fading in favor of modular arrangements where developers pick and choose the support they need—be it marketing, console porting, or financial backing. Xue confirmed that Thatgamepublisher can adopt a similarly modular approach when required, but he believes that emotionally ambitious projects often benefit from an integrated partnership. "For emotionally ambitious projects, creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community, and platform strategy are often deeply interconnected.
Being involved across those areas allows us to bring the most value, protect the emotional core of the game, and help the team carry that vision all the way to players," he said. The overarching rationale for developers to join Thatgamepublisher, according to Xue, is rooted in the company's founding belief that games can forge powerful emotional connections and bring out the best in people.
He traced this philosophy back to the studio's own catalogue—from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky—asserting that the same spirit now guides their publishing efforts. "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," Xue affirmed. He also stressed that emotionally driven games often require a different development playbook.
The heart of a project may not be evident at the outset; it can emerge through prototyping, iteration, quiet discovery, and the right creative conversations. Thatgamepublisher's role, Xue explained, is to safeguard that process, offering developers the space, guidance, and alignment needed to realize the strongest possible experience. Drawing on the studio's experience running Sky: Children of the Light as a live‑service title with over 300 million downloads and seven years of global operation, Xue highlighted how an emotionally resonant game can achieve massive scale without sacrificing its 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," he concluded.
In summary, Thatgamepublisher represents Thatgamecompany's evolution from a small indie studio to a full‑service publisher dedicated to nurturing games that aim to move players on an emotional level. By offering flexible funding, comprehensive support, and a deep understanding of how heartfelt experiences can translate into broad appeal, the new label aims to become a catalyst for the next generation of emotionally rich interactive art.