Thatgamecompany, the creative force behind acclaimed titles such as Flow, Flower, Journey, and the more recent Sky: Children of the Light, has announced the formation of a new publishing division named Thatgamepublisher. This move follows a growing pattern among successful independent studios that, after achieving a breakout hit, create publishing or funding arms to nurture other indie projects.
Recent examples include Innersloth’s Outersloth, which in 2024 backed games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook; Kinetic Games’ Kinetic Publishing, supporting titles such as Precognition from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair’s Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games’ Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a desire among small teams to reinvest surplus revenue into ventures they understand and value. Jenova Chen, co‑founder of Thatgamecompany, explained the rationale: "When an indie game that was built on a shoestring budget becomes a massive success, you suddenly have extra cash but you don’t want to turn your tight‑knit studio into a large corporation. The logical place to allocate that money is into other indie games that share your sensibilities." He recalled that the studio’s earlier masterpiece, Journey, released in 2012, nearly bankrupted the company and forced a round of layoffs.
In contrast, Sky: Children of the Light, launched in 2019, has generated substantial revenue—particularly in the Chinese market—and even inspired a feature film. Those profits now give Thatgamecompany the financial flexibility to back what it calls "emotionally ambitious games." Chen also highlighted a shift in how games reach players. In the early 2010s, distribution channels were dominated by platform holders like PlayStation. Today, however, the distribution network is effectively owned by the players themselves, who act as influencers and word‑of‑mouth marketers.
"A successful indie title can amass millions of players who become its strongest distribution engine," Chen noted. He added that Thatgamecompany’s audience is unusually diverse, with roughly 70% of Sky’s player base being female, giving the studio a unique cross‑gender reach that can help promote titles appealing to a broad demographic.
While the company has not disclosed the specific games it has already signed, Chen described the publisher’s mission in a press release: "When we first started making games, many doubted whether interactive experiences could move people as deeply as film, literature, or music. Over the years, we have seen games forge lifelong friendships, heal personal struggles, reconnect loved ones, and restore hope.
Those moments convinced us that games can touch lives in profound ways. Thatgamepublisher exists to help creators around the world explore new emotional frontiers and 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 looking for projects that "move people through play." He emphasized that genre, platform, or team size are not primary concerns. "We are open to any team, any stage of development, even prototypes, as long as the game reaches for meaningful emotional territory and uses interactivity to guide players there," Xue said. He clarified that "emotional" can encompass joy, chaos, humor, or any feeling that lingers after the screen goes dark.
If a game aspires to that lasting impact, the publisher wants to start a conversation. Unlike many indie publishers that limit themselves to sub‑million‑dollar budgets, Thatgamepublisher is prepared to fund larger, AA‑scale projects. Xue explained that the terms of each deal—such as revenue share and recoupment—will be tailored to the needs of the individual developer.
"As developers ourselves, we understand the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly partnerships," he said. The publisher will offer a full suite of services, including financing, production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This contrasts with other indie publishers like Outersloth or Evil Landfall, which often adopt a modular, funding‑only model. Industry observers note that the traditional publishing model is evolving.
Luke Keighran of Silver Lining Interactive remarked that "the old school publishing model is dead" and that developers now pick and choose the services they need—whether it’s marketing, console conversion support, or full‑service backing. Xue echoed this sentiment, stating that Thatgamepublisher can provide flexible, modular arrangements while also offering integrated partnerships for projects that benefit from a cohesive approach across creative development, production, positioning, and community engagement. 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 pointed to Thatgamecompany’s own philosophy: games can connect people through shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in us.
This belief has guided every title the studio has released, from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky. Yet Chen acknowledges that the emotional ambition of future games often requires a different playbook—one that allows the core feeling to emerge through prototyping, iteration, and quiet discovery. Thatgamepublisher aims to protect that process, providing resources, infrastructure, and the care of a full‑service publisher while preserving the project's emotional core.
Drawing on the studio’s experience running Sky: Children of the Light as a live‑service game with over 300 million downloads and seven years of global operation, Thatgamepublisher believes it can help emotionally resonant games scale without sacrificing meaning. By understanding each game's emotional truth, building community around it, and allowing genuine resonance to drive growth, the publisher hopes to enable indie creators to reach wider audiences while staying true to the feelings at the heart of their work.