Netflix Shuts Down Oxenfree Studio Night School and Moonloot, Cuts More Jobs

Netflix is closing two of its internal video game studios, Los Angeles-based Night School Studio and Helsinki-based Moonloot, as part of a fresh restructuring of its games division. The move was first reported by Stephen Totilo’s Game File and confirmed by Netflix to multiple outlets, including Variety and Game Developer, on Thursday.

Night School, acquired by Netflix in 2021, was the streamer’s very first games studio purchase. The streaming giant is closing Los Angeles-based Night School studio, which it acquired in 2021 and plans to close Helsinki-based Moonloot, which was founded in 2022. Netflix has also confirmed further job losses across its remaining internal games team, though it would not say how many roles are affected.

Night School’s Last Release Was Unhinged, Just Six Weeks Before Shutdown

The timing has stung hardest for Night School. Under Netflix, it also released Oxenfree II: Lost Signals in 2023, Thronglets in 2025, and Unhinged, which launched very recently, on June 30. Unhinged is a short, cloud-streamed horror title played on a browser or television, and the player uses their personal smartphone as a controller, with Zoë Kravitz (The Batman), Sadie Sink (Spider-Man: Brand New Day), and Troy Baker (Marvel Rivals) all voic[ing] characters for the game.

Just weeks earlier, Netflix had held the game up as a success story. According to Game File, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters praised Unhinged in a recent investor call, but given today’s news, it seems Netflix was still dissatisfied with Night School. Before its Netflix era, the studio built its reputation on the 2016 supernatural adventure Oxenfree and its 2019 follow-up Afterparty, a comedy about outdrinking Satan in Hell, as detailed by PC Gamer.

Night School’s game director, Sam Warner, addressed the closure directly on social media. “Despite directing Unhinged and shipping it 6 weeks ago to millions of excited, satisfied players, it looks like I’m back on the market (along with the rest of Night School Studio),” he wrote. Netflix games senior accessibility producer Tara Voelker also confirmed she had been let go, posting on social media that “So, who’s hiring?” … “Yes, I was impacted by the Netflix layoffs even though I was the single accessibility person in gaming.”

Moonloot Closes Before Ever Shipping Its Animal Crossing-Style Game

Moonloot’s story is shorter but no less abrupt. Founded in Helsinki in September 2022 and led by Marko Lastikka, a former Zynga and EA developer, the studio never got a game out the door. Now the studio is being shuttered, along with plans to shut down Finnish studio Moonloot, which was founded in 2022 and was reportedly working on an Animal Crossing-style life sim game.

That leaves Netflix’s internal Helsinki presence resting entirely on Next Games, its remaining first-party studio focused on couch party titles. Everything else in Netflix’s games business now runs through a central team that partners with outside developers rather than building in-house.

Netflix’s In-House Games Roster Keeps Shrinking

Night School and Moonloot are not isolated cuts. In 2024, Netflix shut down Team Blue, a startup made up of former Call of Duty and Halo developers who were trying to build a big-budget first-person shooter. In October 2025, Boss Fight was cut; in December, Spry Fox studio was sold back to its founders. The studio behind Netflix’s FIFA World Cup cloud game: touted as one of the service’s stronger launches: has also closed in recent weeks, according to What’s on Netflix.

Team Blue’s closure in 2024 was itself notable given the profile of talent involved, including ex-Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny, who joined in 2022, and former Halo creative lead Joseph Staten, who joined in 2023. With Night School and Moonloot now gone, Netflix’s remaining internal footprint has narrowed to Next Games and a central team that leans on external partners.

Netflix Insists Games Are Still an “Opportunity”

Despite the closures, Netflix maintains it is not retreating from gaming altogether. A spokesperson told Game File the company is simply narrowing its focus: Netflix attributed the studio closures to a prioritization around kids gaming, party games, story-driven fare and games with mainstream hooks, such as a recently released FIFA game. “We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities,” the spokesperson said.

A separate statement to Game Developer struck a similar note, with Netflix framing the shift as sharpening its bets rather than abandoning them: “Games continue to be an opportunity for us to expand the variety of entertainment we offer Netflix members, and we’ve built solid foundations in our key focus areas,” the Netflix representative said. “As we continue to prioritize these areas, we see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities.” On the human toll, a Netflix rep added, per Variety, “We are incredibly grateful to the talented colleagues we’re saying goodbye to today.”

For a studio with Oxenfree’s pedigree, the exit is a blunt reminder of how quickly streaming-platform investment in games can be wound back, even after strong reviews and executive praise on an earnings call. For Australian and New Zealand players who picked up Unhinged or Oxenfree II through their Netflix subscription, the games themselves aren’t going anywhere for now, but the teams behind them are gone, another data point in a tough year for the wider industry.