- Netflix is shutting down Night School Studio and plans to close Moonloot.
- The closure news came suddenly, even though they released Unhinged recently, which had positive reviews.
- Netflix is narrowing its gaming strategy around kids, party narratives, and mainstream games.
Netflix shuts down Night School Studio and plans to close the Helsinki-based Moonloot as the streaming giant reshapes its strategy. The company is also cutting positions within its central gaming team, although it has not disclosed the exact number till now
The decision came barely six weeks after Night School released Unhinged, which was built specifically around Netflix’s cloud gaming ambitions. The timing in itself is striking as well, because the game performed well, as noted by Netflix itself.
The game studio shutdown by Netflix was first reported by Game File. Netflix explains that they are shutting down the game studios because they want to prioritize children’s games, narrative-driven titles, and party experiences such as FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition.
A Netflix spokesperson says to Game File, “We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities.“
The company also acknowledges the people who worked with them by saying, “We are incredibly grateful to the talented colleagues we’re saying goodbye to today.“
Night School Studio is behind the acclaimed Oxenfree series that was acquired by Netflix in 2021. Then came Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, a game based on the popular Netflix show Black Mirror, and Unhinged, an interactive horror experience, which are some of the amazing games the studio produced while under Netflix.
Moonloot, the Helsinki studio that was reportedly making a life-simulation experience, also faces the same fate as Netflix plans to shut it down. However, this is not the first major internal restructuring that Netflix has done. The company had previously shut down Team Blue, Boss Fight, and sold Spry Fox to its founders.
The shift reflects the strategy Netflix is approaching with gaming right now. While the GTA 6 extended look is also coming to Netflix on August 27.
So, rather than continuing to build on the first-party studios, Netflix now appears to be comfortable using outside developers to increase the catalogue of games it offers.
