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 named Thatgamepublisher. This move mirrors a broader industry pattern where independent studios that have scored a breakout success begin to offer publishing or funding services to other indie developers. Recent examples include Innersloth, the creators of Among Us, which launched Outersloth in 2024 to back games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook; Kinetic Games, known for Phasmophobia, which started Kinetic Publishing and is now supporting projects such as Precognition from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, which introduced Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games, the team behind Peak, which formed the Evil Landfall label.
The trend reflects a desire among small teams to reinvest surplus revenue into projects that align with their own design sensibilities. "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 bankrupted the studio and resulted in a mass lay‑off.
The situation has turned dramatically upside‑down thanks to Sky: Children of the Light, which debuted in 2019 and quickly became a global phenomenon, especially in the Chinese market, and even inspired a feature‑film adaptation. The revenue generated by Sky now gives Thatgamecompany the financial muscle to back what Chen calls "emotionally ambitious games" with budgets that can reach AA levels.
Chen also points out that the landscape of distribution has shifted. In the early 2010s, platforms like PlayStation controlled the primary channels for indie releases. Today, 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 active users who become its most potent promotional engine.
"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 notes. Another distinguishing factor for Thatgamecompany is its demographic reach. Roughly 70 % of Sky’s player base is female, giving the studio a uniquely balanced audience compared with many other developers. "If we promote or feature a game that would be appealing to men and women equally, our audience is going to have a very unique overlap, because there are many of our players who have never played games before," Chen adds.
Thatgamepublisher has already signed a handful of projects, though the titles remain under wraps. In a 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 games that "move people through play." He emphasized that genre, platform, or team size are secondary considerations.
"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 explained.
According to Xue, emotional impact can take many forms—joy, chaos, humor—as long as the experience lingers after the console is turned off. "If a game is chasing that, we want to have the conversation," he said. While many indie publishers limit themselves to sub‑million‑dollar budgets, Thatgamepublisher is prepared to fund larger, AA‑scale endeavors. "We are quite flexible when it comes to funding and project scale," Xue noted.
"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 needs of the project, including revenue‑share structures and recoupment percentages. Xue stressed that, as former developers themselves, the team understands the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly agreements that still provide the resources needed to realize a game’s full potential.
Thatgamepublisher will operate as a full‑service publisher, offering financing, production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This contrasts with some newer indie publishers that adopt a modular, funding‑only model. Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, told GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year that "the old school publishing model is dead," and that modern developers prefer to pick and choose the services they need—be it marketing, console porting, or funding. Xue echoed this sentiment, saying Thatgamepublisher can provide modular support when appropriate, but often prefers an integrated partnership for emotionally ambitious projects where creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community, and platform strategy are tightly interwoven.
Ultimately, the goal is to meet each project where it stands and shape the partnership around the developer’s most pressing needs. 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: Children of the Light.
But we also 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."