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Netflix is once again reducing its commitment to creating games in its in-house studios. The company has decided to close its Night School studio in Los Angeles and plans to shut down the Moonloot team in Helsinki. The decision is particularly surprising in Night School’s case, because the studio released the game Unhinged on Netflix only six weeks ago. According to Netflix’s co-CEO, the title was performing very well. The company says, however, that it still intends to grow gaming, though it wants to focus on selected genres and production models.
Netflix shuts down Night School and Moonloot
Night School was acquired by Netflix in 2021 and had previously become best known for the acclaimed game Oxenfree. After the takeover the studio produced, among other things, a second entry in that series and a mobile tie-in linked to an episode of the Black Mirror series. The team's most recent project was Unhinged, a short, roughly 30-minute first-person horror available on Netflix. The game debuted just six weeks before the announcement of the studio's closure. Interestingly, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters recently praised the title's results during a call with investors. According to him, Unhinged was performing very well, which makes the decision to close Night School even more surprising. Netflix also plans to close Moonloot, a Helsinki-based studio founded in 2022. The company did not provide the exact number of employees who will lose their jobs as a result of the changes. Netflix did say, however, that it is grateful to everyone leaving the company for their contribution to its games. The changes also include job cuts in the central team responsible for gaming. The company says the reorganisation will allow it to focus on its top priorities.
Netflix changes its gaming strategy
Netflix says it still sees games as a way to expand its entertainment offering, but wants to focus mainly on children's games, party titles, story-driven releases and projects with broad potential. Among the examples of this direction the company points to the recently released FIFA game. It's another shift in Netflix's approach to its studios, because just a few years ago the company was actively building up its in-house development arm. Netflix began its gaming activity in 2021, initially offering mobile games as an extra perk for subscribers. In subsequent years the company started experimenting with gaming on TVs and computers via streaming. That model was used by, among others, Unhinged, where a smartphone can serve as a controller. In 2024 Netflix closed Team Blue, which had been working on a high-budget first-person game. A year later the company also closed Boss Fight, then sold the Spry Fox studio that made cosy titles back to its founders. After the latest changes Netflix now has a central gaming team working with external developers and the Next Games studio in Helsinki. That model increasingly resembles how Netflix produces films and TV series, since the company there also largely relies on external creators. Netflix is not giving up on games, but is clearly reducing the number of its own development teams.
Netflix is once again closing its in-house game studios, this time Night School and Moonloot. The decision regarding Night School is particularly surprising, because its latest title Unhinged was released on the platform only a few weeks ago. The company says, however, that it is not stepping away from the gaming market. Instead, it plans to put greater emphasis on selected genres and on partnering with third-party developers.
source: gamefile
