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Netflix is once again scaling back its involvement in creating games in its own studios. The company has decided to close its Los Angeles-based Night School studio 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 a Netflix co-CEO, the title was performing very well. The company insists, however, that it still intends to develop its gaming efforts, although it wants to focus on selected genres and production models.
Netflix closes Night School and Moonloot
Night School was acquired by Netflix in 2021 and was initially best known for the acclaimed game Oxenfree. After the takeover the studio went on to create, 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 studio's closure was announced. Interestingly, Netflix's co-chief executive Greg Peters recently praised the title's performance during a call with investors. According to him Unhinged was performing very well, which makes the decision to shut Night School even more surprising. Netflix also plans to close Moonloot, a Helsinki-based studio founded in 2022. The company has not given an exact number of employees who will lose their jobs as a result of the changes. Netflix did say it is grateful to all those leaving the company for their contribution to game development. 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 it wants to focus primarily on children’s games, party titles, narrative-driven games and projects with broad potential. Among examples of this direction, the company points to a recently released title in the FIFA series. This is another shift in Netflix’s approach to its own studios, because just a few years ago the company was heavily building up its internal development capacity. Netflix began its gaming activity in 2021, initially offering mobile games as an added benefit for its subscribers. In subsequent years the company started experimenting with playing on TVs and computers via streaming. In that model, Unhinged was one example, where a smartphone can serve as the controller. In 2024 Netflix closed the Team Blue studio, which was working on a high-budget first-person title. A year later the company also closed Boss Fight, and then sold Spry Fox, a studio making cosy titles, back to its founders. After the latest changes, Netflix is left with a central gaming team that works with external developers and the Helsinki-based studio Next Games. This model increasingly resembles the way Netflix produces films and series, since the company also largely relies on external creators in that area. Netflix is not abandoning games, but it is clearly reducing the number of its in-house development teams.
Netflix once again closes its in-house game studios, this time Night School and Moonloot. The decision regarding Night School is particularly surprising, as its latest title Unhinged appeared on the platform just a few weeks ago. The company says, however, that it is not withdrawing from the games market. Instead it wants to focus more on selected genres and on collaborating with external developers.
source: gamefile
