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# The studio that fled publishers is now a publisher
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/the-studio-that-fled-publishers-is-now-a-publisher/
- Published: 2026-09-14T20:55:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T20:55:19.000Z
- Description: thatgamecompany has launched thatgamepublisher, spending Sky: Children of the Light money on other people’s emotionally ambitious games.
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: News, thatgamecompany, Publishing, Journey, Jenova Chen, Funding, Sky Children of the Light

In June 2012, a few months after *Journey* shipped and thatgamecompany walked away from Sony, we [wrote up the studio's plan to self-publish](https://www.killscreen.com/thatgamecompany-will-self-publish-their-next-game/)—venture money and all. Last week the same studio [announced thatgamepublisher](https://thatgamecompany.com/thatgamecompany-launches-thatgamepublisher-a-new-publishing-label-dedicated-to-emotionally-ambitious-games/?ref=killscreen.com), a full-service label offering funding, production planning, platform and launch strategy, marketing, community, and long-term IP development. T

The 2012 move was a bet that a studio could fund emotionally strange work without a publisher deciding what emotional meant. The bet paid: *Sky: Children of the Light* has run seven years and past 300 million downloads, and the money from it is what is being spent here. "Most publishers are built around genres or market opportunities," says SJ Xue, the VP of growth and corporate development running the label. "We are built around a conviction that emotionally meaningful games matter."

What is being underwritten, in other words, is a category that thatgamecompany had to invent commercial cover for and now has enough cover to lend out. Jenova Chen's framing in the release is that when the studio started, "many people questioned whether interactive experiences could move players as deeply as film, literature or music." Teams of any size, projects at any stage, no genre or platform restrictions.

Worth noticing what the announcement does not say. There is no fund size, no slate, no named projects. And the reaction under [the studio's own post](https://www.instagram.com/p/DceFehtn9Qy/?ref=killscreen.com) is not the developer excitement you would expect—it is *Sky* players, at length, worried that a publishing arm means fewer people on the live game they actually play. Both things can be true, and the second is the one with seven years of goodwill riding on it.

It's worth noting that this pipeline of independent success to fund more independent success was exactly the flywheel that funded parts of the New Hollywood movement. I thought that moment started *fifteen years* ago, but maybe that day for the future is starting today.

Who funds the strange stuff, and what they want back, is a question Killscreen keeps asking out loud. The free newsletter carries the reporting, plus the work the money is supposed to be for.

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