Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight is an incredible piece of art, and a pretty damn great game. With that said, the action-platformer isn’t the most commercial game, and that’s evident through its unfortunately dismal sales.
As part of Xbox’s devastating layoffs, Compulsion Games has been cut from the Xbox umbrella, alongside hundreds of other developers. For game director David Sears, it’s not too surprising, admitting in a new interview that he wouldn’t have greenlit South of Midnight if he was in Xbox’s position.
“They were funding a lot of games,” the game director told MinnMaxx. “They were also funding a lot of studios… I was like, well, okay, great, I guess you have infinite money… On one hand, if everyone you’re working with is either trying to make generational games at not a huge expense, or games that have huge or really significant contemporary commercial appeal, it’s going to work. But when does that ever happen?”
Sears explained that they were constantly talking to other directors working on Xbox projects while that infinite money was pouring in. He recalled thinking “there’s always a night where Rome burns” as Xbox studios were seemingly in a “golden era” of funding. “I didn’t exactly when it would be, but I was always worried about it.”
“I literally told people, ‘Yeah, this could be terrible.’ Because somebody is going to say one day, ‘We’re closing those floodgates.’ And that’s going to have really traumatic results downstream.” the game director said.
For the types of games that Compulsion Games wants to make, Sears explains that using Xbox’s infinite supplies of funding was “unsustainable”. The studio’s artsy titles are simply not mass market appeal titles, the type of games a console needs to sell units. When asked if he wouldn’t fund South of Midnight if he was in Xbox’s position, the game director responded: “Yeah, probably.”
“I mean, I wanted to make it,” he said. “No doubt, and obviously, because we made it. Would I have turned off someone else’s money flow before South of Midnight? Yeah, ’cause I’m not completely selfless. But it just seems like, in hindsight at least, it was unsustainable. So, of course it was going to have a shocking outcome.”
Sears actually praised Xbox for pushing through and supporting South of Midnight throughout its entire development instead of cancelling the project. While the game wasn’t a commercial success, it did win some awards, and players who liked it really liked it. As far as Xbox games go, it was also refreshingly unique.
Since being cut from Xbox, Compulsion Games has been allowed to keep ownership of South of Midnight. As the studio now reforms itself in a volatile industry, there’s hope that the team can continue to create some incredible looking and playing games even without Xbox funding.
