Thatgamecompany Expands Into Publishing 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 formation of a new publishing division called Thatgamepublisher. This move follows a growing pattern among successful independent studios that, after scoring a breakout hit, choose to broaden their role in the industry by supporting other indie developers through funding, marketing, and distribution assistance. Recent examples illustrate this trend. Innersloth, the creators of the viral sensation Among Us, launched the publishing arm Outersloth in 2024, backing projects like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook.

Earlier this year, Kinetic Games, known for Phasmophobia, introduced Kinetic Publishing, which now represents titles such as Precognition, the newest game from Sam Barlow, the mind behind Immortality. Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, has started Pocketpair Publishing, while Landfall Games, famous for Peak, unveiled the Evil Landfall label. The list of indie studios turning publisher continues to expand.

"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 of people 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 faced a financial crisis; Chen has recounted that the game's development nearly bankrupted the studio and resulted in a wave of layoffs. The situation is dramatically different now. Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has become a global phenomenon, especially in China, and has even inspired a feature film.

The revenue generated by Sky allows Thatgamecompany to allocate profits toward what they term "emotionally ambitious" games. Chen also notes a shift in how games reach audiences. In the era of Journey, distribution channels were dominated by platform owners like Sony.

"Today, the distribution network is owned by the players, who are influencers," he says. A successful indie title can amass millions of players who become its most effective promoters, often surpassing traditional media outlets such as GameSpot, IGN, or even Steam in terms of reach. Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany lies in its demographic profile. Roughly 70% of Sky's player base is female, giving the studio a broader gender reach than many of its peers.

"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 explains. Thatgamepublisher has already signed a few projects, though details 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 effort, told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio seeks 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 said. "'Emotional' can mean many things," he continued. "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." While many indie publishers focus on sub‑million‑dollar budgets, Thatgamepublisher is prepared to back larger endeavors. Xue explained that the company is "quite flexible when it comes to funding and project scale," supporting solo creators with high creativity as well as larger teams pursuing AA‑level budgets.

The specifics of each publishing deal—such as revenue share and recoupment terms—will be tailored to the individual project's needs, reflecting the studio's own experience as developers. Thatgamepublisher aims to operate as a full‑service publisher, offering financing, production planning, platform strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term IP development. This contrasts with other indie publishers like Outersloth and Evil Landfall, which often provide only funding. The industry is moving toward modular publishing models, where developers can pick and choose services.

Luke Keighran of Silver Lining Interactive summed up the shift: "the old school publishing model is dead," and developers now select the exact support they require—be it marketing, console porting, or full‑scale production assistance. Xue reiterated that Thatgamepublisher can adapt its involvement: "We can be flexible depending on what a developer and project needs, including more modular arrangements around areas such as funding, marketing, or other specific support.

That being said, we believe the kinds of games we want to work with often benefit from a more 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." The core belief driving the publisher is that games have the power to forge shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in people.

Chen reflected, "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 ambitious games often require a different development playbook, one that allows the heart of a project to emerge through iteration, prototypes, and quiet discovery.

"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," Chen said. Drawing on their experience running Sky: Children of the Light as a live‑service title with over 300 million downloads and seven years of global operation, Thatgamecompany believes they understand how to 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.