Following last year's layoffs , Netflix is shutting down Night School Studio , the developer behind the acclaimed supernatural thriller Oxenfree , just six weeks after the Californian studio released Unhinged , a short first-person horror game designed to stream on Netflix. Netflix is also planning to close Moonloot , the Helsinki-based studio it founded in 2022. The company is cutting jobs from its internal games team as part of the restructuring, although it has not disclosed exactly how many positions are affected.

Night School rose to prominence with Oxenfree, an award-winning supernatural adventure known for its atmospheric setting, distinctive dialogue system, and branching conversations. They also released Afterparty , a graphic adventure game set in Hell.

Netflix acquired the team back in late September 2021 for an undisclosed sum . Under Netflix, Night School released Oxenfree II: Lost Signals and developed a mobile game connected to an episode of Black Mirror.

Netflix said the closure reflects a decision to concentrate on kids' games, party games, story-driven titles, and projects with broader mainstream appeal, such as its recently released FIFA game. A Netflix spokesperson told Game File :

We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities. We are incredibly grateful to the talented colleagues we’re saying goodbye to today. We thank them for all their contributions to Netflix, and wish them the best.

For now, Netflix has not clarified what will happen to the Oxenfree franchise or whether another developer could eventually work on the series. Night School's closure does not automatically mean the IP is finished, but the studio most closely associated with it is no longer operating.

The planned closure of Moonloot further reduces Netflix’s internal development capacity. The Helsinki studio was founded in 2022 as Netflix expanded its ambitions beyond simply licensing mobile games for subscribers.

Following the latest cuts, Netflix will retain a central games team that works with external developers and Next Games , its Helsinki-based first-party studio. The company's internal studio roster is therefore shrinking, with Netflix increasingly relying on external partners to produce games for its service. They closed Team Blue in 2024 , a Southern California studio assembled with veterans of Call of Duty and Halo to explore a third-person action RPG project for PC.

Last October, Netflix also shut down Boss Fight Entertainment , shortly after Peters praised the studio's Squid Game: Unleashed project to investors. Netflix also sold cozy-game developer Spry Fox back to its founders in December.

Netflix is continuing to support video games, but the closure of Night School is particularly notable because it removes the company's most recognizable core gaming studio. Night School gave Netflix an established creative identity in games through Oxenfree. The simultaneous closure of Moonloot and broader staff reductions suggest that Netflix is now seeking a smaller, more focused games business.

Netflix has faced skepticism about its gaming plans for years , and the latest closures are likely to intensify those doubts. The company has relatively few publicly known upcoming projects that could counter that narrative, although Life Is Strange developer Don’t Nod has said it is working on a game based on a major Netflix franchise .

About the author : With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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