Netflix Shuts Down Two More Game Studios, Including Oxenfree Developer Night School

Netflix is shutting down two of its in-house video game studios — Night School Studio, the Los Angeles developer behind the acclaimed Oxenfree series, and Helsinki-based Moonloot Games — the company confirmed to Game File, with Variety, Game Informer and The Verge reporting the closures on August 13.

Six Weeks After Unhinged

The closures come barely six weeks after Night School released Unhinged, a 30-minute first-person horror game playable on TVs via cloud streaming. The studio, founded in 2014 and acquired by Netflix in 2021, also made Afterparty and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals; Moonloot had yet to ship a title. The Verge reported Netflix is reconfiguring its games branch to focus on TV-based party games rather than narrative downloads.

Receding Ambitions

Netflix has spent five years trying to translate its streaming dominance into games, with limited success. The company divested from Spry Fox in December, closed Boss Fight Entertainment — the developer behind Squid Game: Unleashed — in October, and has leaned increasingly on licensed games and cloud-streamed experiences. The pullback underscores how hard it has been for even the largest streamer to crack the mobile and console games market.