Thatgamecompany Expands with Thatgamepublisher to Support Emotionally Driven Games

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 growing pattern in the independent gaming sector where studios that have achieved breakout success leverage their newfound resources to support other indie developers. Recent examples include Innersloth’s Outersloth, which debuted in 2024 and has already funded projects like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook; Kinetic Games’ Kinetic Publishing, home to titles such as Precognition by Sam Barlow; Pocketpair’s Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games’ Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a broader shift: successful indie creators are turning into investors and distributors for 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." The journey to this point was anything but easy.

When Journey launched in 2012, the studio was nearly bankrupt and faced mass layoffs, a fact Chen recounted to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year. The financial strain was so severe that the team questioned its very survival.

However, the release of Sky: Children of the Light in 2019 marked a dramatic turnaround. The game achieved massive popularity worldwide—especially in China—and even inspired a feature film adaptation. Its success generated a steady revenue stream that now enables Thatgamecompany to allocate funds toward what it calls "emotionally ambitious games." Chen also notes a fundamental shift in how games reach audiences.

In the early 2010s, distribution channels were dominated by platform holders like PlayStation. Today, the distribution network belongs to the players themselves, who act as influencers and organic marketers. "A successful indie title could have millions of players, who are your strongest distribution," Chen says.

"You have an audience who love certain types of experiences and they’ll seek out similar games. In that sense, you have more influence for distribution than traditional media outlets." Another unique advantage for Thatgamecompany is its demographic reach.

Roughly 70 % of Sky’s player base is female, giving the studio a broader gender balance than many of its peers. "We have a much bigger female audience reach than most of the game companies in the world," Chen points out. "If we promote a game that appeals to both men and women, our audience provides a unique overlap, because many of our players have never played games before." Thatgamepublisher has already signed a handful of projects, though the titles remain under wraps.

In a press release, Chen articulated the publisher’s philosophy: "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 leader of the publishing initiative, 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 primary criteria.

"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." "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," Xue added. While many indie publishers focus on sub‑million‑dollar budgets, Thatgamepublisher is willing to back larger endeavors. "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 terms of each publishing deal will be tailored to the specific needs of the project. Xue highlighted that, as developers themselves, the team understands the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly partnerships. "We aim to give teams the support they need to realize the strongest version of their game," he said.

Thatgamepublisher will operate as a full‑service publisher, offering not only capital but also production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This comprehensive approach distinguishes it from other indie publishers that often adopt a modular, funding‑only model. Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, observed that "the old school publishing model is dead" and that developers now pick and choose the services they require—whether it’s marketing, console conversion assistance, or full‑scale production support. Xue reiterated that Thatgamepublisher can provide modular arrangements, but for projects with an emotional core, a more integrated partnership is often beneficial.

"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 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 for the developer. The guiding belief is that games can forge connections through shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in people.

"That belief has shaped everything Thatgamecompany has made, from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky: Children of the Light," he said. "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." He added that emotionally ambitious games often need a different playbook. The heart of a project may not be evident at the outset; 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," Xue said. Drawing on the studio’s 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—Thatgamepublisher believes it can help other titles achieve scale without sacrificing meaning. "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.