Earlier this summer, Netflix-owned developer Night School released Unhinged, a horror game that was playable on televisions/screens through the streaming app. Unhinged was met with acclaim by players, and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters recently called Unhinged one of “our two most successful cloud game debuts” during an investor call. Regardless, Night School has been shuttered by Netflix’s latest round of cuts.
As reported by Game File, Night School and Moonloot are the latest gaming developers to be closed down by Netflix. According to the outlet, Netflix justified the closures by noting that the streamer is narrowing its focus to games for kids, party games, story-driven titles, or “games with mainstream hooks.”
“We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities,” said Netflix in a statement to Game File. “Games continue to be an opportunity for us to expand the variety of entertainment we offer Netflix members.”
This isn’t the first time that Netflix has made gaming cuts at one of its developers after praising its work. Earlier this month, Netflix laid off 85% of the staff of Refactor Games, the developer behind a FIFA World Cup title that Netflix identified as the other most-successful cloud game debut alongside Unhinged.
In July, Netflix boasted that its gaming engagement had gone up 600% from the previous year. While Netflix has previously shared its ambition for a larger stake in the gaming world, the company was notably uninterested in purchasing Warner Bros.’ gaming assets before the proposed sale fell through and Paramount emerged as the winning suitor. Another report indicated that Netflix considered buying EA, one of the largest third-party gaming publishers. EA was later sold to a group that includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and taken private.
