Netflix Shuts Down Night School Studio and Moonloot as Gaming Strategy Shifts Again

Netflix is making another major change to its gaming division, confirming the closure of Night School Studio and plans to shut down Moonloot Games as part of a wider restructuring of its games business.

Night School Studio is one of the most recognizable developers to have joined Netflix's gaming operation. Founded in 2014, the studio became best known for the supernatural adventure Oxenfree before being acquired by Netflix in 2021.

At the time of the acquisition, Netflix presented Night School as an important part of its effort to expand into original game development. The studio later released Oxenfree II: Lost Signals in 2023 for Netflix mobile, PC, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

Netflix's decision to close the developer comes as the company continues to rethink how it approaches gaming. Rather than abandoning games completely, Netflix has increasingly focused on a smaller number of areas that can connect directly with its existing entertainment ecosystem.

The company's current strategy puts greater emphasis on kids games, party games, narrative experiences and mainstream titles, while cloud gaming is becoming an increasingly important part of its plans.

Moonloot Games is also affected by the restructuring. The Helsinki-based studio was established in 2022 but had not publicly released a game before the closure plans emerged.

The two studio shutdowns add to a growing list of changes within Netflix Games. The company previously closed an internal AAA development studio before it had released its first project, signaling that Netflix is becoming more selective about where it invests its gaming resources.

For Night School Studio, the closure marks the end of a developer strongly associated with story-driven games. Alongside Oxenfree and Oxenfree II, the studio also created Afterparty and built a reputation for dialogue-heavy adventures with distinctive supernatural themes.

Netflix Games itself is not disappearing. Instead, the latest restructuring suggests that the company is moving away from maintaining a large collection of internal development teams and toward projects that can more directly benefit from Netflix's massive subscriber base, recognizable franchises and expanding cloud technology.

Official background on Netflix's acquisition of Night School Studio can be found on the Netflix About page.