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Netflix has shuttered two development studios as it shrinks its internal video game operations.
One of them is Night School Studio, best known for its Oxenfree series of narrative adventures with an innovative conversation system.
Acquired by the company in 2021, its most recent release was a game named Unhinged, which you play via Netflix in a browser or on your TV, and control using a mobile device. It launched just weeks ago in late June.
The other studio closing its doors is one called Moonloot Games, which was formed internally in 2022 and had yet to release a single title. It was reportedly working on an Animal Crossing-style life sim.
Game File reports that Netflix is prioritising "kids gaming, party games, story-driven fare and games with mainstream hooks," and that this is part of the reason for the closures.
"We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organisational changes to the business to match those priorities," a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to Game File.
"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."
In addition to shutting the two studios, Netflix is also laying off a number of staff across its internal games team, though it's not been disclosed how many.
Netflix has been dipping its toes into the world of gaming for a number of years now, and while it's had some successes, it's difficult to ignore that most of the studios it's acquired or created have since been closed or moved away from the company.
As pointed out by Game Developer, these include Team Blue and Boss Fight Entertainment, which were both shuttered, while Cozy Grove dev Spry Fox was able to buy back its independence.
Netflix's next foray into video games is a collaboration with Rockstar Games; an extended look at the hotly anticipated GTA 6 will be exclusive to its streaming service for six hours.
[source gamesindustry.biz, via gamedeveloper.com, gamefile.news]
Comments 31
The GTA/Netflix effect. They paid what running studios costs for getting GTA six hours early
I will say that Netflix’s aims to “target kids gaming, party gaming, story gaming and gaming with mainstream hooks” is a more comendable goal than those trying to make every game the next big live service (cough cough, EA). Just a shame it didn’t work out with these two devs. Hope they can all find work elsewhere.
Show of hands. Who actually plays games on Netflix?
Not a dig at those who got laid off just genuinely curious.
Horrible b*stards - the Oxenfree games are brill.
Hope they can be picked up by someone else as a group 😭
Something tells me that Netflix doesn't actually know what they want. You ever notice how successful many shows, animated series, and some games, like Oxenfree, still get Netflix's in-house teams gutted, or those shows cancelled, all for another market that isn't as significantly more profitable as they make it out to be, or for shows that are already very popular and established, but already have funding put into them and will have Netflix looking for options on what should replace them as soon as those shows conclude?
In Layman's terms, I think the people running Netflix are incompetent.
Never played or ever intended to play a game on Netflix, or Prime or anything like that. I wonder how it financially benefits Netflix and Co to try gaming in the first place? As far as I know you dont have to buy the games right? Can't be very lucrative.
Poor devs, this game didn’t deserve it, no one did. Can never trust Netflix….
What we need is another megacorp initiating a push into gaming, buying out developers instead of creating ones naturally and then getting cold feet after learning how hard it is to produce quality titles that people are interested in. Its about time Amazon killed those studios, then I guess we might get Apple gaming or something so that they can buy a bunch and then shut those down when the wishy washy management has had enough.
I can't blame these developers for being bought out either, the appeal must be huge and I imagine the suits are well practiced in talking teams into believing the whole "We are fully committed to gaming" spiel.
If I was a dev that ended up working for Netflix I'd have been looking for a new job the second the acquisition went through. This was always destined to happen. Same as Amazon, Google, basically anyone that has no business being involved in games but fancies having a go.
@ElPenitente I didn't know I could, that tab was always hidden. I'm assuming people just stream them to their phones/devices. I've never played a mobile game before, only console/PC/their respective handhelds and that's about it.
really annoyed at this, as loved both oxenfree games
If they hadn't spunked tens of millions on the GTA trailer they could have funded them for years!
What is a bit crazy is that the Netflix games on mobile are actually pretty decent. I guess I can see casual people willing to play games on the TV but really the mobile Netflix library, if built up and invested, could've been a decent Apple Arcade-level thing.
@ElPenitente I play geometry dash and dead cells via the netflix app on my phone when I'm bored at work. Otherwise I pay it very little attention.
It's Netflix, they axe their best shows if they aren't worldwide number 1 in the first week of release and even then they're aren't safe. Should be no surprise this was coming.
Any dev selling up to Netflix is signing the death of their company, it's simply a matter of when.
Netflix gaming arm is odd because they put on some absolute bangers for free, I just have no desire to play the games on there in that way and alwayd forget they eveb have a games section.
If they arranged some tie in with Playstation where you could link the accounts and you got a Playstation version of those titles that are on both services as long as you have active subs, similar to ps+ then you'd be talking about something potentially very interesting.
The suits strike again
Seasons change time passes by as the week's become the months become the year's.
Oldest story in the industry. Tech/Media company thinks they can get into gaming. Learns quickly it is difficult and expensive to make waves in the industry, and shitcans everyone.
The first Oxenfree was a very creative horror idea. Second one not so much, but it's still sad to see another talented studio get shut down by a big corpo.
Similar to MS just buying studios to artificially inflate their stance, Netflix and Amazon annd others are not going to be able to just buy their way into the space.
Maybe Netflix should stick to movies and television instead.
@pyrrhic_victory They kinda suck at those as well though. Netflix is the premier source of what I can only describe as "yellow paint writing" where talking heads spout exposition at one another at all times, in the event the audience has zoned out and started looking at their phones instead.
To be honest, Netflix hasn’t done anything with their gaming studios. It’s hard to access the games and it doesn’t seem like they actually cared to use the strong talent they acquired. It’s a shame too because the Oxenfree team had made two excellent games in Oxenfree. If they wanted to use them to make an IP game for Stranger Things in the style of Oxenfree, it would’ve made so much sense. I just don’t know why these megacorps don’t tee themselves up to utilize what they have. There is a vision of the world where the megacorps could be making fans happy and creating jobs while creating profit.
That's a shame,as quite liked the Oxenfree games...though I never really understood how Night School's game style would "fit" with Netflix.🤔
The closest thing to a "game" I ever tried on Netflix was that Black Mirror Bandersnatch thing & was so dark & depressing, never saw a remotely good ending!🤯😅 Even the spookiest Choose Your Own Adventure books would have at least one or two happy endings!
As usual, wherein these small indies are typically born out of old staff leaving a bigger studio that've lost their way, then after finding their feet the founders are all to eager to cash in with a big enough offer only to then find ultimately the clueless big corporate drives them into the ground or suddenly an expense they want a tax write off on,rinse & repeat!🙄
@ElPenitente when I got a Retroid device I gave a bunch of them a go since that runs android and I’m an iPhone user so didn’t have an already existing library. That was early 2024? Crucuially I upgraded from a Retroid 4 to a 6 earlier this year and didn’t even bother downloading them this time.
When I was on vacation I would play Netflix games on my phone as it was easy and portable and they worked up great. They need to stop being so broad, get games that are good games to be played portably, as it’s never gonna be lucrative trying to get people to play Netflix games on tv. Get Balatro, Slay the Spire, try to pitch it as a more on-the-go portable gaming app. I’m available if you need some help Netflix!!
Night School was a genuinely talented studio who did great games like Oxenfree/Oxenfree 2 and Afterparty. It was primarily made up of former Telltale games developers from back when Telltale was at its peak too so there was clearly talent in their ranks. This one stings for me.
@ElPenitente the party games they have work great for the holidays and I played dead cells and tmnt on mobile. It's a great offering but really goes under unfortunately.
F**K YOU NETFLIX!
I played Unhinged, I thought it was pretty good. It's under an hour long but using your phone as a controller worked really well and I would've liked to see them apply the same mechanism to a longer game. I've played Oxenfree and Before Your Eyes via my Netflix subscription as well, and I know a few people who play some of the games on their with their kids. It was never going to replace console gaming but there are some great titles on there. Sounds like that might all be over now!
Not care for games on Netflix, YT or otherwise. I have the PS4 Playlink games whenever I feel like them (disks and apps as both are delisted officially).
I'll maybe consider the PS5 D&D game with phones if I care to there. I'll get Everybody 1 2 Switch if I care.
I like quality, I'll go play Flash games on Flashpoint if I care for that, not mobile games.
Otherwise console games with quality, which even 9th gen doesn't have really. At least not fore what I'm looking for.
But none of these are worth it at all.
What a waste of a studio/team, oh well not surprising but unfortunate.
Netflix and Facebook bought a bunch of studios to try to do a thing no one cares about or asked for, and now so many have been shut down or stripped down. The big aimless buy-ups helped maybe in the immediate short term though to stay afloat.
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