秋生的游戏情报雷达
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Thatgamepublisher wants to sign mobile games playing in “meaningful emotional territory”
📰 Vikki Blake
👤 Vikki Blake
🕒 2026-10-06 18:33:43
AI 摘要 · 其他
Thatgamecompany新成立的Thatgamepublisher计划资助探索'有意义情感领域'的移动游戏，Sky游戏已实现3亿下载量及1.838亿美元移动收入，长期运营策略强调玩家归属感而非硬核变现。该出版标签不限制平台或类型，核心标准是游戏能否通过互动实现情感共鸣，强调长期运营中玩家对游戏的'所有权感'是留存关键。
对商业化启示：长期运营需平衡情感价值与玩家粘性，而非依赖硬核变现手段，为移动游戏提供非传统变现模式参考。
Sky and Journey maker Thatgamecompany’s new publishing label is looking to fund and publish mobile games that explore “meaningful emotional territory”.
Thatgamecompany’s VP of growth and corporate development SJ Xue told mobilegamer.biz that new label Thatgamepublisher covers funding, production planning, platform and launch strategy, marketing, community support and long-term IP development. There are no platform restrictions on what it will sign, he said.
The label isn’t looking for games that resemble Sky, he explained, and that genre, scale and platform aren’t the deciding factors. Instead, the studio’s criteria come down to whether “a game reach[es] for meaningful emotional territory, and does it use interactivity to get players there.”
Teams of any size are eligible, including projects still in prototype. Xue described Thatgamepublisher as “a separate initiative built to work with outside developers,” adding that “the label exists to bring other developers’ vision to players, not just our own.”
Asked whether Thatgamecompany’s past public stance against harder-edged mobile monetisation still applies, Xue said the approach “hasn’t changed over time” and is carrying over into Thatgamepublisher. Even as Sky has matured, Xue said, it’s “held up largely as designed,” pointing to seven years of live operation as evidence rather than describing any changes made along the way.
Asked what he’d tell a mobile studio skeptical that a long-lived game can survive without leaning on harder-edged monetisation, Xue pointed to Sky itself: seven years, 300m downloads – and still growing. “What’s kept people here that long isn’t a mechanic, it’s the sense that the game is theirs,” he said. “At Thatgamepublisher, that’s what we’d tell any studio thinking about longevity. It’s not about a single lever you pull. It’s about whether players feel enough ownership over the experience that they want to stay for years.”
On Sky’s own performance, Xue said mobile is the company’s largest player base, though the studio stopped short of providing an exact platform split. He did, however, stress that console and Steam versions remain “healthy and important parts of the ecosystem.”
The studio tells us Sky has passed 300m downloads across all platforms since its 2019 launch, with
AppMagic
estimating mobile revenue of around $183.8m. Xue said engagement has held up seven years on, pointing to the recent Dear Van Gogh season and a regular run of seasonal content, community events and live concerts.
Developers can pitch to
thatgamepublisher here
.
Thatgamecompany’s VP of growth and corporate development SJ Xue told mobilegamer.biz that new label Thatgamepublisher covers funding, production planning, platform and launch strategy, marketing, community support and long-term IP development. There are no platform restrictions on what it will sign, he said.
The label isn’t looking for games that resemble Sky, he explained, and that genre, scale and platform aren’t the deciding factors. Instead, the studio’s criteria come down to whether “a game reach[es] for meaningful emotional territory, and does it use interactivity to get players there.”
Teams of any size are eligible, including projects still in prototype. Xue described Thatgamepublisher as “a separate initiative built to work with outside developers,” adding that “the label exists to bring other developers’ vision to players, not just our own.”
Asked whether Thatgamecompany’s past public stance against harder-edged mobile monetisation still applies, Xue said the approach “hasn’t changed over time” and is carrying over into Thatgamepublisher. Even as Sky has matured, Xue said, it’s “held up largely as designed,” pointing to seven years of live operation as evidence rather than describing any changes made along the way.
Asked what he’d tell a mobile studio skeptical that a long-lived game can survive without leaning on harder-edged monetisation, Xue pointed to Sky itself: seven years, 300m downloads – and still growing. “What’s kept people here that long isn’t a mechanic, it’s the sense that the game is theirs,” he said. “At Thatgamepublisher, that’s what we’d tell any studio thinking about longevity. It’s not about a single lever you pull. It’s about whether players feel enough ownership over the experience that they want to stay for years.”
On Sky’s own performance, Xue said mobile is the company’s largest player base, though the studio stopped short of providing an exact platform split. He did, however, stress that console and Steam versions remain “healthy and important parts of the ecosystem.”
The studio tells us Sky has passed 300m downloads across all platforms since its 2019 launch, with
AppMagic
estimating mobile revenue of around $183.8m. Xue said engagement has held up seven years on, pointing to the recent Dear Van Gogh season and a regular run of seasonal content, community events and live concerts.
Developers can pitch to
thatgamepublisher here
.