Netflix closes its biggest video game studio, but says it won’t stop making video games in the future

As journalist Stephen Totilo has learned, Netflix is going to shut down its biggest video game studio: Night School. They are the team behind games like Oxenfree and who, just a month and a half ago, released a new video game on the platform, Unhinged, a first-person horror adventure that didn’t require any kind of special controller, and could be played entirely with the TV remote.

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These aren’t the only cuts at the streaming company. They’ve also announced plans to shut down Moonlot Games, a studio founded in 2022 to develop original games in Helsinki, Finland, which is now shutting down for good.

An uncertain future

That doesn’t mean Netflix is going to give up on video games from here on out. Their plans, according to what they’ve told Totilo, boil down to “we see an opportunity to be more focused on our execution, so we’re making organizational changes in the business to align with those priorities”, although they haven’t specified what that focus is.

For years there has been a great deal of skepticism about Netflix’s plans for its video game division and this will only add to it. By closing its two main studios dedicated to games and doing away with its mobile games, without clarifying what the future holds for its video game division, it leaves more questions than answers about what it’s looking for for video games on the platform. So only time will tell what will come of all these changes.