Compulsion Games Seeks Support Studio Work Following Xbox Divestment
Previously, he's interviewed breakout indie developers, broken big news stories, reviewed massive releases and recounted his time living as a humble woodsman in Oblivion.
A lifelong gamer, Jack is primarily interested in RPGs and narrative experiences. He's also been playing League of Legends for a decade, unfortunately.
Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions were recently divested from Xbox, returning both to the independent status they once held, along with their respective intellectual properties. This is a distinct situation from Undead Labs and Ninja Theory, which Xbox sold to new publishers.
Both studios now have to find a path towards financial stability, and though Xbox provided both with "runway" money for their next respective projects, game development is extremely expensive and maintaining a sizeable studio without a parent company means every single project needs to be completed on time and, crucially, needs to be a hit.
Compulsion Games is still waiting for that hit, with Contrast, We Happy Few and South of Midnight all receiving middling reviews and mediocre sales numbers. With the (relative) safety offered by Xbox gone, people are rightly worried about the future of the Montreal-based studio.
Compulsion Games Is Open To Support Work
In a prudent move, Compulsion has announced its intention to become a support studio in the near future. In a post on LinkedIn, the studio announced it was open to leveraging its experience to support other projects.
"With Compulsion Games returning to its roots as an independent developer, we are expanding opportunities to collaborate with studios across the games and entertainment industry," reads the post. "We invite partners to leverage the talent and creativity of the award-winning team behind South of Midnight, a game that was honoured with a BAFTA award, a Peabody award, seven Canadian game awards, and recognised on multiple 'Best Games of 2025' lists."
South of Midnight, despite receiving a lukewarm reception from critics, received several awards, mostly due to Compulsion's creative approach to the game's subject matter.
"With deep experience in creating acclaimed original IP, we bring our artistry, technical expertise and collaborative approach to every project," the post continues. "We are excited to support the development of memorable experiences that engage and entertain players around the world."
Compulsion Games ballooned in size under Xbox, rising from 40 people who were initially working on We Happy Few to over 100 employees in recent years. It's very difficult to support a studio this big without guaranteed commercial success; the next few years will be pivotal for the studio's future.
Compulsion Games
- Date Founded
- May 1, 2009
- Parent Company
- Microsoft, Xbox Game Studios
- Headquarters
- Montreal, Canada
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