{"id":812621,"date":"2026-08-13T20:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812621\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T20:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:32:13","slug":"breaking-netflix-to-shut-down-two-more-game-studios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812621\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Netflix to shut down two more game studios"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Unhinged, from Night School, released on Netflix six weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Netflix is sticking with video games but once again reducing the number of studios it owns making games.<\/p>\n

The streaming giant is closing Los Angeles-based Night School studio, which it acquired in 2021 and plans to close Helsinki-based Moonloot, which was founded in 2022. <\/p>\n

Just six weeks ago, Night School<\/a> had released Unhinged, a novel 30-minute first-person horror game<\/a>, streamable on TVs to Netflix users. The game was hailed by Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters in a call with investors, citing \u201creally solid numbers.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Six weeks later, Night School is closing. <\/p>\n

Prior to its Netflix tenure, Night School had developed the award-winning supernatural thriller Oxenfree<\/a>. A second Oxenfree game followed after the purchase, as well as a mobile game designed to tie in to an episode of the Netflix show Black Mirror.<\/p>\n

Netflix attributed the studio closures to a prioritization around kids gaming, party games, story-driven fare and games with mainstream hooks, such as a recently released FIFA game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities,\u201d a Netflix spokesperson told Game File.<\/p>\n

Netflix is also cutting jobs from its internal games team. A rep declined to say how many jobs were being lost by these cutbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly grateful to the talented colleagues we\u2019re saying goodbye to today. We thank them for all their contributions to Netflix, and wish them the best,\u201d the rep said.<\/p>\n

Netflix started releasing video games, initially on mobile as a free bonus to subscribers, in 2021. By 2023, Mike Verdu, then the head of Netflix\u2019s game operations, was telling me<\/a> that the company was committed to growing carefully, as it offered more games and built up internal game studios. At the time, it hadn\u2019t made any gaming job cuts.<\/p>\n

Since then, Netflix has altered its approach. In 2024, it shut down Team Blue<\/a>, a start-up studio led by ex-Call of Duty and Halo developers that was exploring making a high-end first-person game for the service.<\/p>\n

Last October, Netflix shut down another studio<\/a>, Boss Fight, shortly after Peters praised the team\u2019s Squid Game game to investors. (One of Boss Fight\u2019s main developers now works on the Netflix FIFA game for outside studio Delphi.)<\/p>\n

And in December, Netflix sold cozy game studio Spry Fox<\/a> back to its founders.<\/p>\n

Amid all of this, Netflix has shifted from emphasizing mobile games to offering games through TVs and PCs, via streamed connections, with phones used as controllers. That\u2019s how Night School\u2019s Unhinged worked, along with games such as Boggle and Party Crashers that have collectively helped the Netflix game controller app chart well<\/a> on mobile app stores.<\/p>\n

The studio cuts leave Netflix with a central gaming team that works with external developers, and a dedicated first party studio in, Helsinki-based Next Games, which produced many of the company\u2019s couch-centric party games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move away from having a roster of internal game studios aligns with Netflix\u2019s own approach to shows and movies, which are largely produced externally. The company owns few TV\/film production studios of its own.<\/p>\n

The gaming industry overall is seeing large holders of multiple studios cut back, with Sony, Ubisoft, Embracer, Microsoft and other giants closing or selling off studios. Cuts in California-based studios, where costs often run relatively high, have been particularly acute.<\/p>\n

Netflix has faced skepticism about its gaming plans for years. The moves today are likely to fuel them, and the company has few upcoming projects to counter the narrative. Among the few hinted, acclaimed independent studio Don\u2019t Nod said last year<\/a> it was working on a game tied to a major Netflix franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cGames continue to be an opportunity for us to expand the variety of entertainment we offer Netflix members,\u201d the Netflix rep told Game File.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unhinged, from Night School, released on Netflix six weeks ago. Netflix is sticking with video games but once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-812621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}