When Netflix bought Night School Studio in 2021, it was the kind of name that got name-dropped in "streaming platforms are serious about games" headlines — after all, the Oxenfree series had real cred in indie circles. Four years later, the studio had just shipped the TV horror experience Unhinged this year, plus a Black Mirror-branded mobile game in 2025, only for Netflix to announce it's shutting the studio down.
Shut down alongside Night School Studio is Moonloot Games, a Helsinki studio founded in 2022. Both are part of this round of layoffs in Netflix's gaming division, which is also trimming "extra" positions internally. One name among the cuts is Tara Voelker, who described herself as the "only accessibility design person" on the games team — meaning Netflix's gaming division won't have a dedicated accessibility hire for the time being.
Netflix spokesperson Chrissy Kelleher told The Verge: "As we continue to focus on these areas, we see opportunities to be more concentrated in our execution, so we've made organizational adjustments to the business to align with those priorities." In plain terms, Netflix is consolidating resources around four directions — kids, party, narrative, and "mainstream" games — and studios like Night School Studio, which built its name on narrative-driven indie titles, no longer fit those priorities.
This pivot actually started last year. Since late last year, Netflix has been shifting its focus away from polished indie titles on mobile and toward party games on TV, with many indie titles that were once part of its mobile game lineup gradually being pulled. Around the same time, Netflix shut down the studio behind the Squid Game mobile game and sold Cozy Grove developer Spry Fox back to its original owners; in 2024, a AAA studio that had never shipped a single title was also shut down.
In other words, Night School Studio and Moonloot Games aren't the first casualties — and they're likely not the last. Netflix has not disclosed the exact timeline for shutting down either studio, nor specified how many employees are affected.
