// PC GAMER — GAMING
Netflix closes Oxenfree developer Night School, just a month after praising its new game as one of the company's 'most successful cloud game debuts'
Moonlight, a studio Netflix founded in 2022, is also being closed.
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Less than two months after the release of its latest game, Unhinged, Netflix is closing developer Night School Studios, as well as its Moonloot studio in Helsinki.
Netflix confirmed the closures, first reported by Game File, in a statement provided to PC Gamer.
"Games continue to be an opportunity for us to expand the variety of entertainment we offer Netflix members, and we’ve built solid foundations in our key focus areas: Kids (Netflix Playground), Party (Netflix Minigolf), Narrative (Unhinged) and Mainstream (FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition)," a Netflix spokesperson said. "We’re especially excited about the momentum we’re seeing with cloud games and kids games."
Unhinged, as I mentioned, was developed by Night School and released just six weeks ago, on June 30. It was seemingly a hit: Less than a month ago, during Netflix's second-quarter earnings report, the company was trumpeting its success. "We really see it working," Netflix co-CEO Gregory Peters said in response to a question about the company's cloud gaming strategy. "FIFA and Unhinged became our two most successful cloud game debuts, really solid numbers that put it in the top tier of game performance for us."
It sounds very upbeat—yet here we are, 28 days later, with Netflix "making organizational changes to the business" because it sees "an opportunity to be more focused in our execution." Night School, which Netflix acquired in 2021, is being closed, and Netflix is "planning to close" the Moonloot studio it founded in 2022.
"We're grateful for Night School’s work in pushing the boundaries of storytelling through games with Unhinged," the spokesperson said.
But Night School was a lot more than Unhinged. The studio is best known for the award-winning indie hit Oxenfree, released in 2016, and the 2023 follow-up Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals—in between which it put out the lesser-known but also well-received Afterparty, a game about dying, going to Hell, and outdrinking Satan.
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