Following Compulsion Games’ independence from Xbox, the creative director of the studio’s last game, South of Midnight, has said that he would have turned off Xbox’s “money tap” earlier than it happened. In an interview with MinnMax, David Sears spoke about his time at the studio while it was still under Xbox during the development of South of Midnight, and noted that he was already critical of the funding provided by the parent company quite early on.
“I literally told people, I was like, ‘Wow, this could be terrible,’” he said. “Because somebody is going to say one day, ‘You know the money tap? We’re closing those floodgates.’ And that’s going to have really traumatic results downstream.” When asked about whether he would have stopped funding the studio earlier if he was in charge of Xbox, he replied by saying, “Yeah, probably.”
While he still wanted South of Midnight’s development to be completed, he acknowledged that I’m not completely selfless”, and that “in hindsight at least, it was unsustainable. So, of course it was going to have a shocking outcome.”
Discussing Xbox’s investment in Compulsion Games in hindsight, Sears spoke about how there were questions being asked about whether the studio was going through a “golden era” and how the team felt incredibly lucky.
“It’s easy to dissect it now, but at the time I would talk to other directors who would be like, ‘How is this happening? How did we get so lucky? Is this a golden era?’ And I would always be like, ‘For now.’ There’s always a night when Rome burns. I didn’t know exactly when it would be, but I was always worried about it.
“But to their credit — amazing. I think there’s definitely a corporate Microsoft DNA, but they are vastly different from the Microsoft I knew back in the ‘90s and early 2000s — much more humane, actually. It’s remarkable and commendable.”
Xbox announced its plans to divest itself of Compulsion Games alongside three other studios – Double Fine Productions, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory – back in July. The studio has also notified Arkane Lyon that the studio will have to find a new buyer before December 13th. At the time, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma spoke about how “many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved Xbox,” and confirmed that the company was cutting around 1,600 jobs.
As for Compulsion Games, the studio confirmed in July that it would be hanging on to the rights for South of Midnight, which opens up the door for potential sequels and spin-offs in the future. “We’re grateful for the years we spent with Xbox, for the support they provided our team, and for the opportunity to bring these games to players around the world,” said the studio at the time.
South of Midnight was released on PC and Xbox Series X/S in April 2025, followed by a PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 launch earlier this year. For more details, take a look at our review.
