Thatgamecompany, the creative force behind acclaimed titles such as Flow, Flower, Journey, and the more recent Sky: Children of the Light, has taken a decisive step beyond pure development by establishing its own publishing division, dubbed Thatgamepublisher. This move mirrors a growing pattern in the indie sector where studios that have scored a breakout hit leverage their newfound resources to nurture and fund other independent projects. Notable 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 introduced Kinetic Publishing with titles such as Precognition, the latest offering from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair, the team behind Palworld, which now runs Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games, the developers of Peak, which have rolled out the Evil Landfall label. The trend underscores a shift in how successful indie developers view surplus capital—not as a reason to expand their own staff dramatically, but as an opportunity to invest in the broader creative ecosystem they understand best.
"Successful indie games are often built on shoestring budgets," explains Jenova Chen, co‑founder of Thatgamecompany. "When a title takes off, you suddenly have cash that you can’t just pour into hiring thousands of people.
The logical place to put that money is into other indie projects that share your sensibilities and values. That's why many indie studios are becoming publishers." When Journey launched in 2012, Thatgamecompany was far from flush with cash.
Chen has recounted to GamesIndustry.biz that the development of Journey nearly pushed the studio to bankruptcy, resulting in a wave of layoffs. Fast forward to the present day, and the landscape looks dramatically different.
Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has become a global phenomenon, especially in the Chinese market, and has even inspired a feature film adaptation. The game's sustained revenue stream now gives Thatgamecompany the financial footing to back what it describes as "emotionally ambitious" games, ranging from modest indie experiments to projects with AA‑level budgets. Chen also points out a fundamental shift in distribution.
In the era of Journey, the primary channels for reaching players were controlled by platform holders like PlayStation. Today, the distribution network is effectively owned by the players themselves, who act as influencers and word‑of‑mouth promoters. A successful indie title can amass millions of dedicated fans who become its most potent marketing engine.
"If your audience loves a certain style of game, they will actively seek out similar experiences," Chen notes. "That organic reach often outweighs traditional media outlets like GameSpot or IGN." Another distinctive advantage for Thatgamecompany lies in its demographic reach.
Chen highlights that roughly 70 % of Sky's player base is female, giving the studio a uniquely balanced audience compared to many other developers. This gender‑diverse community provides a valuable platform for promoting games that appeal to both men and women, and even to players who are new to gaming altogether. While the exact slate of titles under Thatgamepublisher remains under wraps, Chen has shared the publisher's guiding philosophy in a recent press release. He recalls the early skepticism that interactive experiences could ever move people as deeply as film, literature, or music.
Over the years, games have proven their capacity to forge lifelong friendships, heal personal struggles, reconnect loved ones, and restore hope. "Thatgamepublisher exists because we believe countless creators worldwide are exploring new emotional frontiers, and we want to help them bring those visions to life," the statement reads.
SJ Xue, Thatgamecompany’s vice‑president of growth and corporate development and the leader of the publishing initiative, elaborates on the types of projects the new label seeks. The focus is not on genre, platform, or scale, but on the ability of a game to "move people through play." He stresses that the publisher is open to teams of any size, from solo developers prototyping ideas to larger studios with AA‑budget ambitions.
The core question is whether the experience will linger with players after the console is turned off—whether it evokes joy, chaos, humor, or any other resonant emotion. In contrast to many indie publishers that limit themselves to pure funding, Thatgamepublisher is positioned as a full‑service partner.
The studio offers financing, production planning, platform strategy, launch support, marketing, community management, and long‑term intellectual‑property development. Xue acknowledges that the terms of each deal—such as revenue share and recoupment percentages—will be tailored to the specific needs of the project.
"As developers ourselves, we understand the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly partnerships," he says. The flexibility of Thatgamepublisher extends to modular service arrangements. While some publishers, like Outersloth and Evil Landfall, operate primarily as funding sources, the industry is moving toward a model where developers can pick and choose the services they need—be it marketing, console porting, or full‑scale production support.
Luke Keighran of Silver Lining Interactive has observed that the "old school publishing model is dead," replaced by a more collaborative, à la carte approach. Xue believes that emotionally ambitious projects often benefit from an integrated partnership, where creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community engagement, and platform strategy are tightly interwoven. By staying involved across these domains, Thatgamepublisher aims to protect the emotional core of each game and guide it from concept to player.
The ultimate promise of Thatgamepublisher is rooted in the studio’s foundational belief that games can forge deep, shared emotional experiences. Chen reflects that this conviction has shaped every title the studio has released—from the meditative flow of Flow to the intimate storytelling of Journey.
He adds that the journey is now larger than a single studio; creators worldwide are pushing the boundaries of what games can make us feel, and Thatgamepublisher seeks to be the conduit that brings those ideas to a global audience. In practice, this means providing developers with the space to iterate, the guidance to refine their vision, and the resources to scale without compromising the heart of the experience. Drawing on the operational expertise gained from running Sky: Children of the Light—a live‑service game with over 300 million downloads and seven years of worldwide operation—the team believes it can help emotionally driven games achieve both depth and breadth.
By grounding each partnership in an understanding of a game's emotional truth, nurturing its community, and allowing genuine resonance to drive growth, Thatgamepublisher aspires to amplify the reach of each project while staying true to the feelings at its core.