Pocketwatch Games was founded in 2005 by Andy Schatz. Their debut titles were the IGF Grand Prize nominated ecosystem-sim game Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa and the subsequent game Venture Arctic.

2010 was the company's breakout year when the indie co-op heist game Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine won the Grand Prize and Excellence in Design in the Independent Games Festival, and going on to sell close to 2 million copies on PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox, and Switch.

In 2017, Pocketwatch released Tooth and Tail, an Arcade-Style Real Time Strategy game set in a world of animal revolution. Tooth and Tail was nominated for numerous awards, including the 2018 IGF award for Excellence in Narrative, and still maintains an active community of enthusiasts and modders.