Overview
- Netflix confirmed Thursday that it is permanently closing Los Angeles-based Night School Studio and Helsinki-based Moonloot and is eliminating additional roles across its internal games teams.
- Night School shipped the cloud game Unhinged on June 30 and was publicly praised by Netflix leadership for strong cloud debut numbers only weeks before the studio was shuttered.
- Netflix told reporters the closures are part of a deliberate refocus onto kids games, party games, story-driven titles and games built for TVs via cloud streaming.
- The company declined to disclose how many jobs were cut and has not said what will happen to Night School’s franchises such as Oxenfree or to unreleased work from Moonloot.
- The moves continue a multi-year pattern of Netflix acquiring then divesting or closing studios, leaving the service with fewer internal developers and raising questions about long-term investment in original game IP and staff impact.