While Netflix’s deal with Take-Two Interactive to host a timed exclusive extended look at Grand Theft Auto 6 indicates that the company is still interested in the gaming industry, the streaming giant is also shutting down its development studios. According to Game File, Los Angeles-based developer Night School and Helsinki’s Moonloot are being shut down.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Netflix said that the company wants to prioritize its game development efforts towards more family-friendly affairs like party games and titles for children. The company also wants to focus on games that would garner more mainstream attention. “We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities.”
These organizational changes aren’t just limited to shutting down development studios. The company has also confirmed that its own games team is seeing job cuts. While the representative didn’t confirm how many employees were being let go, they acknowledged the process and said, “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.”
Looking to the future, the Netflix representative noted that “Games continue to be an opportunity for us to expand the variety of entertainment we offer Netflix members.”
Night School is a celebrated indie game development team that has worked on narrative games like Oxenfree, Oxenfree 2, and Afterparty. It was acquired by Netflix back in 2021, and its most recent outing was a 30-minute first-person horror experience dubbed Unhinged. The title was available to Netflix users through game streaming in the app.
Unhinged tells the story of two neighbors – played by Zoe Kravitz and Sadie Sink – trying to survive in the midst of a home invasion. It also features Troy Baker in an integral role. The process of playing Unhinged is also an interesting one, since the gameplay largely takes place on the user’s phone. The experience has been described as being quite novel, especially due to its short run time that doesn’t seem to outstay its welcome.
The horror experience was seemingly quite successful, with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters saying during an earnings call from July that it was one of “our 2 most successful cloud game debuts” that was able to generate “really solid numbers that put it in the top tier of game performance for us.”
When Night School had first announced its acquisition by Netflix, the company had spoken about getting to continue making the projects it found most interesting and being able to use one of the largest entertainment platforms in the world. “The Netflix team has shown the utmost care for protecting our studio culture and creative vision,” said the developer at the time.
“For now, there’s a kaleidoscope of butterflies in our team’s collective stomachs. (Apparently that’s what you call a group of butterflies?) Because we truly believe we’ve got a chance to positively impact the way people discover, play, and share story games with each other.”
