Pocketpair, the company behind smash hit Palworld, announced that its entering the publishing business with a new division called Pocketpair Publishing. This business will support game development through funding, development assistance and publishing for indie game developers and studios, Pocketpair said in a news release.First up, Pocketpair Publishing signed a project from Tales of Kenzara: Zau makers Surgent Studios. This game is unrelated to the Tales of Kenzera universe; its a standalone horror game. Surgent Studios CEO and House of Dragons actor Abubakar Ssalim said its still in earnest conversation about further projects set in the Tales of Kenzara universe.Both Surgent and Pocketpair are well-versed in taking risks, Salim said. We noticed a pattern in the entertainment industry, and Pocketpair has given us the opportunity to make a horror game about it. It will be short and weird, and we think players will be interested in what we have to say.The game, which is unnamed at this time, is expected out in 2025.This is the energy I want to see driving games in 2025developers lifting each other up, creating together, and pushing the industry forward.Massive love to the Pocketpair team! Its an incredible honor to be the first partnership announced with @PocketpairPBLSH Weve been https://t.co/DM8Z7Lp4oK Abubakar Salim (@Abzybabzy) January 23, 2025Its good news for Surgent Studios, which announced in October that it put the work of its games team on hold due to a lack of funding. Its at that time when the studio put the word out about a new prototype: a game thats darker, edgier, and more visceral than our first game, but it retains all Zaus high-octane combat and cultural depth. Surgent Studios wrote on X in October that it was looking for a partner on it; thats seemingly where Pocketpair stepped in. Alongside the announcement of the Pocketpair partnership, Salim noted that the pair up is what hed like to see in 2025: Developers lifting each other up, creating together, and pushing the industry forward.Video games cost more than ever to make while funding has seemingly all but dried up. Last year was particularly hard for smaller studios to stay afloat, and thousands of people across the industry were laid off. Even critical success couldnt help studios; Tales of Kenzara: Zau was lauded for its take on Metroidvanias, led by an actor in a Game of Thrones television show, and still couldnt capitalize on that success until another indie studio stepped up to help.With Palworld, a survival creature-catching game, Pocketpair generated more profit that it could handle at its size. In an interview with Bloomberg, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe said Palworld cost less than 1 billion ($6.4 million) but brought in tens of billions in profit. Now, its seemingly using that success to push other indies forward, too.As the games industry continues to grow, more and more games find themselves struggling to get funded or greenlit, Pocketpair Publishing lead John Buckley said in a news release. We think this is a real shame, because there are so many incredible creators and ideas out there that just need a little help to become incredible games.On the Pocketpair Publishing website, the company states that it doesnt want to take control from a developer, nor does it want to change your dream or push you to make a certain type of game. It wants to give developers money to make their dream games. Its a message that sounds familiar; smash hit social deduction game Among Us developer Innersloth used its success to launch a similar initiative in 2024 Outersloth. Like Pocketpair, InnerSloths success was outsized to the studios origins. Among Us blew up in 2020 and has continued to see success.Being indie devs ourselves, we knew one of the hardest things to get was straight up funding, Innersloth communications director Victoria Tran told Polygon in 2024. Were very privileged to be in the position were in and have the eyes on us, so we hoped we could create something that hopefully inspires others to pay it forward, wherever they can and whatever that means to them. We only got here because of the help of our industry peers and players, so it felt right to help where we could.The video game industry is still looking for a way to ensure sustainability for its projects, and, most importantly, it workers; in 2025, at least, indies funding indies are the first to make that push.