Journey studio Thatgamecompany launches Thatgamepublisher to champion games that “move people through play”

Thatgamecompany, the studio behind Flow, Flower, Journey, and Sky: Children of the Light, has launched a publishing arm.

Thatgamepublisher is part of an ongoing trend, where indie studios with a mega hit behind them branch out into publishing or funding to champion other indie titles. Innersloth, the studio behind Among Us, launched Outersloth in 2024, backing titles like Clickolding and The Horror at Highrook, while earlier this year, Phasmophobia developer Kinetic Games launched Kinetic Publishing, with a roster of titles that includes Precognition, the latest game from Immortality creator Sam Barlow. Palworld maker Pocketpair has launched Pocketpair Publishing, Peak developer Landfall Games has launched the publishing label Evil Landfall… the list goes on.

“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, the 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.”

Thatgamecompany certainly didn’t have an overflow of cash back when Journey was released in 2012. As Chen explained to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year, making Journey almost bankrupted the studio, and led to “everyone” being laid off.

But things have changed a lot since then. Sky: Children of the Light, released in 2019, has been incredibly successful, particularly in China, and there’s even a film based on the game. Now, Thatgamecompany is in a position to be able to invest the profits from Sky in what it describes as “emotionally ambitious games.”

Power shift

Other things have changed, too. Chen says that back when Journey was released, the distribution network was owned by companies like PlayStation. “But today, the distribution network is owned by the players, who are influencers.” He says that a successful indie title could have millions of players, who are “your strongest distribution.”

“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.”

Thatgamecompany has another point of differentiation: “We have a much bigger female audience reach than most of the game companies in the world,” says Chen, adding that roughly 70% of Sky’s players are female. “And 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 says Thatgamepublisher has already signed a “couple” of games, although the company is not revealing them just yet. In a press release statement, Chen outlined the vision for the publisher:

“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, vice president of growth and corporate development at Thatgamecompany and leader of the publishing initiative, tells GamesIndustry.biz that the firm is looking for titles that “move people through play.”

“The typical genre or platform restrictions would not apply to us,” he says. “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.”

“‘Emotional’ can mean many things,” he continues. “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.”

Bigger budgets

Many indie publishers are mostly looking to fund smaller titles, with budgets of below $1 million. But Thatgamepublisher is willing to push the boat out on bigger projects. “We are quite flexible when it comes to funding and project scale,” says Xue. “We are open to working with everyone from solo developers with immense creativity to larger teams with AA-level budgets.”

Xue says that the terms of the publishing deal, regarding points like the percentage of recoup, will vary depending on the needs of each project. “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,” he says.

It’s notable that Thatgamepublisher is launching as a full-service publisher, providing funding, production planning, platform and launch strategy, marketing, community management, and long-term IP development. Other indie publishers, like Outersloth and Evil Landfall, have embraced a funding-only model, and the trend in publishing more widely is to adopt a modular approach. Luke Keighran, founder of Silver Lining Interactive, told GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year that “the old school publishing model is dead,” and that the new model is more about developers choosing which services they require, whether it’s marketing, help with console conversions, access to funding, or all of the above.

“We are open to working with everyone from solo developers with immense creativity to larger teams with AA-level budgets”

Xue says Thatgamepublisher 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,” he continues. “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.”

“Ultimately, we want to meet each project where it is and shape the partnership around what will be most useful to the developer.”

Emotional connection

In terms of why developers should sign with Thatgamepublisher, Xue points towards the company’s founding philosophy: that “games can connect people through shared emotional experiences and bring out the best in us.”

“That belief has shaped everything Thatgamecompany has made,” he says, “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.

“We learned from our own work that emotionally ambitious games often need a different 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.

“Thatgamepublisher brings that creative perspective together with the resources, infrastructure, and care of a full-service publisher. Our experience operating Sky: Children of the Light as an emotional live-service game with more than 300 million downloads and seven years of global operations has taught us how deeply felt experiences can reach broad audiences without losing what makes them meaningful.

“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.”