Netflix closes more game studios as it pulls back on video games
A month after releasing the star-studded Unhinged, Netflix is closing the studio behind it
Netflix is closing two more of its video game studios as the streaming giant continues to scale back on internal game development.
The company is shutting down Los Angeles-based Night School Studio, the developer behind the acclaimed Oxenfree series, and plans to close Helsinki-based Moonloot. Netflix acquired Night School Studio in 2021, while Moonloot was founded in 2022. Game File first reported the closures.
The moves are the latest in a string of cutbacks as Netflix reshapes its gaming strategy. The company shut down its high-profile Team Blue studio in 2024, closed Squid Game: Unleashed developer Boss Fight Entertainment last year, and later sold cozy game developer Spry Fox back to its founders. The latest closures also come shortly after Refactor Games, which worked on Netflix's recently released FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition, laid off 85% of its staff after publisher Delphi Interactive reportedly pulled its funding.
Netflix told Game File that it is focusing its gaming efforts around kids games, party games, story-driven titles, and games with mainstream appeal. Netflix recently released Toca Boca Jr Kitchen, an "open-ended cooking game for kids," and Netflix Minigolf, a couch co-op party game featuring minigolf courses based on Stranger Things, Squid Game, and Bridgerton.
“We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities,” a Netflix spokesperson told Game File.
Inside Netflix's closing studios
Night School is best known for Oxenfree, the acclaimed 2016 supernatural adventure game. The studio later released Afterparty and, following its acquisition by Netflix, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals and the Black Mirror-inspired mobile game Thronglets.
Its most recent release, Unhinged, arrived just six weeks ago. The 30-minute first-person horror game, starring Zoë Kravitz, Sadie Sink, and Troy Baker, streams through Netflix on TVs and uses a phone as its controller. In Polygon’s preview of the game, we called Unhinged an intriguing experiment that offered a potential path forward for Netflix's gaming ambitions. Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters recently said the game had delivered “really solid numbers.”
Moonloot, founded in Helsinki in 2022, had yet to release a game and was reportedly working on an Animal Crossing-style life sim.
Netflix is also cutting jobs from its broader games team, though it declined to tell Game File how many employees are affected.