The Peabody-winning studio developed South of Midnight and We Happy Few.
Just days after Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed a “frustrating” reality for the state of Xbox, a new report claims that the company is planning to shutter Compulsion Games, the studio behind 2025’s South of Midnight.
Kotaku reported the news of Compulsion Games’ closure. The outlet believes that the number of affected employees is larger than the 90 listed on its LinkedIn profile.
Source: Xbox Game Studios
Compulsion Games has developed three games since its founding in 2009: Contrast, We Happy Few, and South of Midnight. The latter of which was scored an 8/10 in my Shacknews review. It also won the Peabody Award for Best Interactive Game less than two months ago. A feat for which Asha Sharma publicly congratulated the team.
In a follow-up post on BlueSky, reporter Rebekah Valentine stated that Compulsion leadership is “apparently in some sort of ‘negotiations’ with Microsoft over the decision, though it’s unclear what the potential outcome of these conversations could be. Xbox acquired Compulsion Games in 2018.
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Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom’s desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_