Thatgamecompany, the acclaimed creator behind 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 a breakout success use their newfound resources to nurture other indie projects. Recent examples include Innersloth, the developers of Among Us, which started Outersloth in 2024 to back games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook, and Kinetic Games, the team behind Phasmophobia, which launched Kinetic Publishing and now supports titles such as Precognition, the latest work from Sam Barlow.
Pocketpair, known for Palworld, has also set up Pocketpair Publishing, while Landfall Games, the studio behind Peak, introduced the Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a broader shift: successful indie creators are turning into publishers to reinvest their profits into the ecosystem that helped them thrive. "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 drove the studio to bankruptcy and resulted in a large layoff wave. The situation is dramatically different today.
Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has become a global phenomenon, especially in the Chinese market, and even inspired a feature film. The revenue generated by Sky now gives Thatgamecompany the financial bandwidth to fund what it calls "emotionally ambitious games"—projects that aim to touch players on a deeper, more personal level.
Chen also notes a shift in how games reach audiences. In the early 2010s, 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 organic promoters, often wielding more sway than traditional media outlets such as GameSpot, IGN, or even Steam. This democratization of distribution means indie studios now have a direct line to a passionate community that can amplify a game's reach. Another distinctive asset for Thatgamecompany is its audience composition.
"We have a much bigger female audience reach than most of the game companies in the world," Chen points out, citing that roughly 70 percent of Sky's player base identifies as female. This gender‑balanced demographic gives Thatgamepublisher a unique advantage when selecting titles that appeal across gender lines, especially for games that may attract players who have never engaged with video games before. While the roster of games under Thatgamepublisher remains under wraps, Chen shared the publisher's overarching 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 lead of the publishing initiative, elaborated on the type of projects the studio is seeking. "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—so long as the experience lingers after the console is turned off.
"If a game is chasing that, we want to have the conversation," he added. Where 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 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 agreement will be tailored to the project's needs. Xue emphasized that, as developers themselves, the team understands the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly partnerships. This includes flexible recoupment structures and a willingness to provide the specific resources a studio requires.
Thatgamepublisher is positioning itself as a full‑service publisher, offering not only capital but also production planning, platform strategy, launch support, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This contrasts with other indie publishers such as Outersloth or Evil Landfall, which often adopt a funding‑only model. The industry is moving toward modular publishing arrangements, where developers can pick and choose services. Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, observed that "the old school publishing model is dead" and that today's developers prefer customized support packages.
Xue echoed this sentiment, noting that Thatgamepublisher can provide modular support when needed, but for emotionally driven projects they often prefer a more integrated partnership. "Creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community, and platform strategy are often deeply interconnected for these kinds of games.
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 explained. The ultimate goal, according to Xue, is to meet each project where it stands and shape the partnership around what will be most useful to the developer. He highlighted the company's founding belief that games have the power to connect people through shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in humanity.
This ethos has guided Thatgamecompany's own titles—from the meditative flow of Flow to the delicate narrative of Flower, the pilgrimage of Journey, and the communal sky‑bound adventure of Sky: Children of the Light. "We learned from our own work that emotionally ambitious games often need a different playbook," Xue said. "The heart of a project is not always easy to define at the beginning. It can emerge through prototypes, iteration, quiet discoveries, and the right creative conversations.
Our role is to help protect that process, giving developers the room, guidance, and alignment they need to discover the strongest version of their work." Drawing on their experience running Sky as an emotional live‑service game with over 300 million downloads and seven years of global operations, Thatgamecompany believes they have the expertise to scale heartfelt experiences without diluting their impact. "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," Xue concluded.