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 named Thatgamepublisher. This move follows a growing pattern in the indie sector where studios that achieve breakout success leverage their newfound resources to support other independent developers.
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, known for Phasmophobia, which started Kinetic Publishing and now represents projects such as Precognition from Sam Barlow; Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, which introduced Pocketpair Publishing; and Landfall Games, the team behind Peak, which formed the Evil Landfall label. The trend reflects a desire among small studios to reinvest earnings into the broader indie ecosystem rather than expanding their own internal teams.
"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 thousand‑person company. With extra money, you need to decide where to invest. The logical choice is to put it back into something you understand—other indie games.
That’s why many indie studios are doing this." The financial reality was stark when Journey launched in 2012. Chen has recounted that the project nearly drove the studio to bankruptcy and forced a mass lay‑off 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‑length film. The success has given Thatgamecompany the capacity to allocate profits toward what it calls "emotionally ambitious" games—titles that aim to move players on a deeper, more personal level. Chen also notes a shift in how games reach audiences.
In the early 2010s, distribution channels were dominated by platform holders like PlayStation. Today, however, "the distribution network is owned by the players, who are influencers." A viral indie title can amass millions of followers, turning its community into a powerful marketing engine that often outweighs traditional media outlets such as GameSpot, IGN, or even Steam. Another distinguishing factor for Thatgamecompany is its demographic reach.
Roughly 70 % of Sky’s player base is female, giving the studio a broader gender balance than many competitors. "If we highlight 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," Chen says. While the exact slate of projects under Thatgamepublisher remains under wraps, Chen shared the publisher’s guiding philosophy 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 proven their capacity to forge lifelong friendships, heal personal struggles, reconnect loved ones, and restore hope.
Those moments convinced us that games can touch lives in profound ways. Thatgamepublisher exists because we believe countless creators worldwide are exploring new emotional frontiers, 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, elaborated on the types of projects the studio seeks. "We are looking for titles that move people through play," Xue told GamesIndustry.biz. "Genre, platform, or size doesn’t matter.
What matters is whether the game reaches for meaningful emotional territory and uses interactivity to get players there." Xue emphasized that "emotional" can encompass a wide spectrum—joy, chaos, humor, melancholy—so long as the experience lingers after the console is turned off. He added that the publisher is willing to fund a broad range of budgets, from solo developers with modest ambitions to larger teams capable of AA‑level production. "We are quite flexible when it comes to funding and project scale," he said. "Our terms, including revenue splits, will be tailored to each project's needs.
As developers ourselves, we understand the importance of fair, transparent, and developer‑friendly partnerships." Unlike some indie publishers that focus solely on financing, Thatgamepublisher intends to operate as a full‑service publisher. Its offerings include not only capital but also production planning, platform and launch strategy, marketing, community management, and long‑term intellectual‑property development. This comprehensive approach contrasts with the modular models adopted by studios like Outersloth and Evil Landfall, which often let developers pick and choose specific services.
Xue explained that this flexibility is intentional: "We can adapt to what a developer and project need, whether that’s funding, marketing, or other targeted support. For emotionally ambitious projects, creative development, production, positioning, marketing, community, and platform strategy are deeply interconnected.
Being involved across those areas lets us protect the emotional core of the game and help the team carry that vision all the way to players." The overarching rationale for developers to partner with Thatgamepublisher stems from the studio’s founding belief that games can forge shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in people. Chen reflected, "That belief has shaped everything we’ve made, from Flow and Flower to Journey and Sky. But we also know this path is bigger than a single studio. Creators worldwide are exploring new ways to make games feel, and we want to help those ideas reach players." He added that emotionally ambitious games often require a different development playbook.
"The heart of a project isn’t always obvious at the start; it can emerge through prototypes, iteration, quiet discoveries, and the right conversations. Our role is to protect that process, giving developers space, guidance, and alignment 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—Thatgamecompany believes it can scale heartfelt experiences without diluting their impact.
"By understanding each game’s emotional truth, 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. In short, Thatgamepublisher represents a new chapter for Thatgamecompany, extending its legacy of emotionally resonant games into a supportive publishing model that aims to nurture the next generation of indie titles capable of moving players in meaningful ways.