Thatgamecompany, the creative force behind acclaimed 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 among successful indie developers who, after achieving breakout success, expand into publishing or funding to nurture other independent projects. 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, the studio behind Phasmophobia, which started Kinetic Publishing and now supports titles such as Precognition from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair, the team behind Palworld, which introduced Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games, the developers of Peak, which created the Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a broader shift in the indie ecosystem where studios leverage their newfound financial resources to support peers.
"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 studio's journey to financial stability was far from smooth. When Journey launched in 2012, Chen recalled that the project nearly bankrupted the company, leading to a wave of layoffs. In contrast, Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has become a global phenomenon—especially in China—and even inspired a feature‑film adaptation.
The massive success of Sky has generated sufficient profit for Thatgamecompany to consider reinvesting in what it calls "emotionally ambitious games." Chen also points out how the distribution landscape has transformed. In the early 2010s, platforms like PlayStation controlled the primary channels for indie releases. 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 could have millions of players, who are your strongest distribution," Chen says. "You have an audience that loves a certain style of game and they will seek out similar experiences.
That gives indie studios a distribution reach that can rival traditional media outlets." Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany is its audience demographics. Roughly 70% of Sky's player base is female, giving the studio a broader gender reach than many competitors. Chen believes this diversity allows the publisher to champion games that appeal to both men and women, often attracting players who have never engaged with games before. While specific titles under Thatgamepublisher have not yet been disclosed, Chen shared the publisher's philosophical foundation 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, personal healing, reconnections, 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, emphasizes that the studio is looking for games that "move people through play," regardless of genre, platform, or development stage.
"The typical genre or platform restrictions would not apply to us," Xue explains. "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 adds that emotional impact can take many forms—joy, chaos, humor—but the core question is whether the experience lingers after the console is turned off. "If a game is chasing that, we want to have the conversation," he says.
Unlike many indie publishers that 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 notes.
"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 project's needs, with an emphasis on fairness and transparency. "As developers ourselves, we understand how important it is to build partnerships that are developer‑friendly while giving teams the support they need to realize the strongest version of their game," Xue says. Thatgamepublisher will operate as a full‑service publisher, offering funding, production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This contrasts with some indie publishers that adopt a modular, funding‑only model.
Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, recently remarked that the "old school publishing model is dead" and that modern developers can pick and choose the services they require. Xue confirms that Thatgamepublisher can provide modular arrangements as well, but stresses that many emotionally driven projects benefit from an integrated partnership. "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 explains.
Ultimately, the publisher aims to meet each project where it is and shape the partnership around what will be most useful to the developer. The guiding belief remains that games can forge shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in people—a philosophy that has shaped Thatgamecompany's own catalog from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky. By extending that ethos to other creators, Thatgamepublisher hopes to amplify the reach of emotionally ambitious games while preserving the heartfelt essence that makes them resonate with audiences worldwide.