21
votes
Xbox is planning to shutter Peabody Award-winning Compulsion Games (We Happy Few, South of Midnight)
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- Authors
- John Walker, Ethan Gach
- Published
- Jun 15 2026
- Word count
- 361 words
I feel like the title is really trying to pump up the reputation of the studio lol. I don't think Peabody is typically an organization that video games aspire to.
Idk, kinda is what it is? As a studio they don't exactly perform well. In 17 years they've made a whopping 3 games:
2013 - Contrast, which has a 60/100 on OpenCritic
2018 - We Happy Few, which has a 63/100 on OpenCritic
2025 - South of Midnight, 76/100 on OpenCritic
I mean, ratings isn't everything, but everyone knows that game critics typically grade games from 7/10 to 10/10. For 2/3rd of their games to average a 6/10, and the other one gets a 7/10? Eeeeehhhh.
And they all sold atrociously. Like, there's some studios that make artsy games which don't sell well but at least review well. This doesn't sell well and doesn't review well.
I don't think it's hard to see why Microsoft would shut down a studio that takes a very long time (this studio has like 7 year long cycles!) to make critically poorly received games that sell poorly.
South of Midnight has a cool aesthetic but it's very much an indie-looking platformer, except it look 90 developers 8 years to make.
I know that I don’t follow gaming news but I literally have not heard of any of these titles anywhere.
They are definitely more of an art-house studio. Contrast was a lovely game with interesting mechanics, excellent atmosphere, and clunky controls. I guess they tend to call this "Eurojank".
The bigger issue here is, as usual, the acquisition. Xbox acquired the studio in 2018, right after We Happy Few launched (their 2nd out of now 3 games). And with that they proceeded to spend those 6-7-ish years to make a single game (granted, pandemic impacts are not negligible). It didn't make a bazillion dollars because this was not a studio you bought to make a bazillion dollars. And now they are thrown away as leadership changes yet again and the focus goes from "we want to make ART!" to "we want to lean on already successful services". Tossed around like a potato and dropped like it was hot
People may not bemoan Compulsion as much, but I would not be surprised if Ninja Theory (who had the exact same history, even being acquired at the same time) is also on the chopping block.
Literally in the suggested articles below the one in the OP for me :(
Man, why can't I call happy stuff :( .
I had to make sure I didn't just glance at a headline and accidently "predict" something I read, but my comment was 4 hours before this article.
Sounds like Double Fine was also updated via Bloomberg, but it (and Compulsion) may apparently be in talks to break off and be their own studios again.
Ninja Theory at the very least has had critical successes and won awards at the bigger shows, even if they're not mainstream games. If they are being lined up for the block, then it's likely to be after 2027 as a new Hellblade game (simply titled "Senua", despite being the third in the series?) has been announced in this year's Xbox Games Showcase.
Seems like according to Jason Schreier quite a few studios are at risk.
Studios in Microsoft's Xbox Division Brace for Closures
Ninja Theory, who just announced a new game last week, and Double Fine are also under threat
It's my hope and belief that Double Fine can survive something like this. They have a core of people who have been working together for a very long time, highly skilled industry veterans who have created many amazing games. And they've been through lean times before, for years at a time! No matter what happens to the companies and trademarks, if they want to keep working together, I'm sure they will.