Netflix closing Night School Studio and Moonloot Games

Netflix is closing Oxenfree developer Night School Studio and Helsinki-based Moonloot, the corporate confirmed Thursday.

A Netflix consultant advised Game Developer that the corporate can be “eliminating some additional games roles” throughout the video games group. Netflix declined to share particulars on how many individuals had been laid off. Game File first reported the information of the 2 studios’ closures.

Night School Studio launched horror sport Unhinged in late June, simply weeks earlier than Thursday’s closure. Unhinged is performed on a browser or tv, and the participant makes use of their private smartphone as a controller. Zoë Kravitz (The Batman), Sadie Sink (Spider-Man: Brand New Day), and Troy Baker (Marvel Rivals) all voiced characters for the sport. Moonloot didn’t have any introduced tasks, however was reportedly working on some sort of Animal Crossing-like game. Night School Studio launched its award-winning Oxenfree in 2016 earlier than Netflix revealed its sequel, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals. Netflix acquired Night School Studio in 2021, shortly after Netflix formally launched its video games enterprise. It was the primary studio to be acquired by the streaming platform. Moonloot was spun up internally at Netflix in 2022.

Related:Scabby versus Sharma, Twitch’s GenAI admission, and Netflix shutters extra studios – Patch Notes #65

“Games continue to be an opportunity for us to expand the variety of entertainment we offer Netflix members, and we’ve built solid foundations in our key focus areas,” the Netflix consultant stated. “As we continue to prioritize these areas, we see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities.”

Netflix is “excited,” the spokesperson stated, “about the momentum” of cloud and children video games. The information launch listed a number of “key focus areas,” like youngsters video games, get together video games, narrative video games, and mainstream video games. (Unhinged, from now-closed Night School Studio, is listed as a story instance.) Netflix just lately launched get together and sports activities video games Netflix Minigolf and FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition. FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition developer Refactor Games (which is an exterior studio) laid off 85% of its staff simply weeks after the sport was launched.

Netflix has been shifting its video games technique to those types of informal or get together video games for individuals to play collectively on a tv, fairly than solely on their smartphones. (At launch in 2021, Netflix appeared extra all for cellular video games.) Netflix has spent the previous couple of years shutting down many of the studios it acquired: Team Blue, reportedly engaged on a first-person sport, was shut down in 2024; Boss Fight Entertainment, which made Squid Game: Unleashed, was shuttered in October 2025; Cozy Grove developer Spry Fox cut up from Netflix in December. Co-founders Daniel Cook and David Edery purchased again the corporate from Netflix. Netflix Mini Golf maker Next Games is the one studio left, other than Netflix’s inside video games group.

Related:2K publicizes new Vancouver-based AAA studio led by EA veteran

Its newest announcement is a partnership with Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games; an “extended look” trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 will debut on Netflix. It’s unique to Netflix for six hours. Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy (packaging up three Grand Theft Auto video games) came to mobile via Netflix in 2023.

At least 5 studios throughout the online game business laid off employees in only a couple weeks of August. That contains CD Projekt Red, That’s No Moon, Supermassive Games, Lightspeed, and Refactor Games.