Thatgamecompany, the creative force behind acclaimed 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 among independent studios that have scored a breakout success and are now expanding into publishing or funding roles to uplift other indie projects.
For example, Innersloth, the creators of Among Us, started Outersloth in 2024 and have already backed games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook. Earlier this year, Kinetic Games—known for Phasmophobia—launched Kinetic Publishing, adding titles such as Precognition, the latest work from Sam Barlow of Immortality fame, to its roster. Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, introduced Pocketpair Publishing, while Landfall Games, the team behind Peak, formed the Evil Landfall label. The trend is clear: successful indie developers are leveraging their newfound capital to become publishers themselves.
"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 forced a mass lay‑off.
The situation is dramatically different now. Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has become a global phenomenon—especially in China—and even inspired a feature film.
The revenue generated by Sky allows Thatgamecompany to allocate profits toward what it calls "emotionally ambitious" games. 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 attract millions of players who become its most potent promoters, often surpassing traditional media outlets such as GameSpot, IGN, or even Steam in terms of reach.
Another distinctive advantage 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, adding that roughly 70 % of Sky’s players are women. This demographic balance gives Thatgamepublisher a unique ability to champion games that appeal equally to men and women, including titles that may attract newcomers to gaming.
While the publisher has already signed a "couple" of projects, 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 head of the publishing effort, told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio is hunting for titles that "move people through play." He emphasized that genre, platform, or team size will not be limiting factors. "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 explained. "'Emotional' can mean many things," he added.
"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." 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 deal will be tailored to the specific project. Xue stressed that, as developers themselves, they understand the need for fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly agreements that still provide the resources required to realize a game’s full potential.
Unlike some peers that operate solely as funding sources, Thatgamepublisher will function as a full‑service publisher. It will offer financing, production planning, platform and launch strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This comprehensive approach contrasts with the modular models adopted by studios such as Outersloth or Evil Landfall, which let developers pick and choose individual services.
Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, observed earlier this year that "the old school publishing model is dead" and that modern publishers are more about flexible, à‑la‑carte support. Xue reiterated that Thatgamepublisher can adapt its involvement based on each developer’s needs, whether that means a modular arrangement focusing only on funding or a deeper partnership covering creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community building, and platform strategy. He believes that emotionally ambitious projects benefit from an integrated approach because the creative core, marketing narrative, and community engagement are often tightly intertwined. Ultimately, the goal is to meet each project where it stands and shape the partnership around what will be most useful to the developer.
Xue summed up the philosophy driving the new label: "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." He concluded by highlighting the studio’s own experience running Sky: Children of the Light as an emotional live‑service game with more than 300 million downloads and seven years of global operation. "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 said.