In 2021, in their bid to get more of a hold on the games industry after dominating film and television streaming, Netflix acquired Oxenfree and Afterparty developer Night School Studio, the first developer they had ever acquired. Now, five years later, the streaming giant is shuttering Night School Studio, as well as Moonloot, another developer they owned that was yet to put out a game. This comes six weeks after the release of Night School’s latest game, the Netflix exclusive Unhinged.
This comes from Game File, who shared a statement from a Netflix spokesperson: “We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities.” On top of the closure of the two aforementioned studios, an unspecified number of jobs from Netflix’s internal games team are being cut as well, with the rep also noting, “We are incredibly grateful to the talented colleagues we’re saying goodbye to today. We thank them for all their contributions to Netflix, and wish them the best.” It should be noted that one of these internal team members was the company’s only games accessibility staffer.
Night School have frequently been highly regarded for their output over the years, having worked on a pair of Oxenfree games, Afterparty, and smaller other titles here and there. Moonloot were seemingly working on something Animal Crossing looking, but that obviously won’t materialise now.
One of the easier to doubt comments from the Netflix rep is as follows: “Games continue to be an opportunity for us to expand the variety of entertainment we offer Netflix members.” As Game File notes, Netflix have shut down multiple studios over the past couple of years, including one led by former Call of Duty and Halo developers. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve not seen anything of note come from Netflix on the games front so far in their endeavours. Though if I’m to be snarky, I could say the same about the rest of their output. I could! But mostly, it speaks for itself.
Solidarity with those at Night School and Moonloot, and those from Netflix’s internal team.
