Thatgamecompany, the creative force behind acclaimed titles such as Flow, Flower, Journey, and the widely celebrated Sky: Children of the Light, has announced the formation of a new publishing division named Thatgamepublisher. This move follows a growing pattern among successful indie developers who, after achieving breakout hits, expand into publishing or funding roles to nurture other independent projects. Recent examples include Innersloth, the creators of Among Us, which launched Outersloth in 2024 to support games like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook; Kinetic Games, known for Phasmophobia, which introduced Kinetic Publishing with a slate that features Precognition from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, which started Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games, the team behind Peak, which formed the Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a broader shift in the indie ecosystem, where financial windfalls from a hit title are reinvested into the community that helped create it.
"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 financial landscape was dramatically different when Journey launched in 2012. Chen has recounted to GamesIndustry.biz that the development of Journey nearly drove the studio to bankruptcy, resulting in a mass layoff of staff. In contrast, Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has generated massive revenue, especially in the Chinese market, and even inspired a feature film. The success of Sky provides Thatgamecompany with the capital needed to fund what Chen describes as "emotionally ambitious games." Chen also notes a shift in how games reach audiences.
During Journey's era, distribution channels were dominated by platform holders like Sony. Today, "the distribution network is owned by the players, who are influencers." A popular indie title can now amass millions of players who act as organic distributors, sharing their experiences across social media, streaming platforms, and word‑of‑mouth networks. "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 adds. Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany is its demographic reach. "We have a much bigger female audience reach than most of the game companies in the world," Chen says, citing that roughly 70% of Sky's player base is female.
This gender‑balanced audience creates a unique overlap for titles that aim to appeal to both men and women, especially those who may be new to gaming. While Thatgamepublisher has already signed a "couple" of projects, the specifics remain under wraps. In a press release, Chen outlined 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 leader of the publishing initiative, told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio is searching for games that "move people through play." He emphasized that genre, platform, or team size are irrelevant; what matters is the capacity to reach meaningful emotional territory and to sustain that feeling after the console is turned off.
"'Emotional' can mean many things – 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," Xue explained.
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 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 agreement will be tailored to the project's needs.
Xue highlighted the importance of fairness and transparency: "As developers ourselves, we understand how important it is to build partnerships that are fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly, while giving teams the support they need to realise the strongest version of their game." Thatgamepublisher is positioning itself as a full‑service publisher, offering not only capital but also 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 funding‑only or modular approach.
Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, has observed that "the old school publishing model is dead," and that modern developers can pick and choose services—whether marketing, console porting, or financing—that best fit their needs. Xue reiterated that Thatgamepublisher can provide modular arrangements when appropriate, but believes that emotionally ambitious projects benefit from an integrated partnership. "For emotionally ambitious projects, 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 said. The overarching philosophy behind the publisher is simple: games have the power to connect people through shared emotional experiences. Xue summed it up, "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." He added that emotionally driven games often require a different development playbook. "The heart of a project is not always easy to define at the beginning.
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." Drawing on its experience running Sky: Children of the Light—a live‑service title with over 300 million downloads and seven years of global operation—Thatgamepublisher believes it can scale heartfelt experiences without diluting their impact. "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.