Netflix has previously shut down studios like Team Blue and Boss Fight. It also sold the cozy-game studio Spry Fox back to its founders.
The company is focusing on kids' content, party games, story-driven titles, and mainstream-appeal games. Its recently released FIFA title exemplifies this mainstream appeal.
The company is moving away from maintaining a large roster of internal studios. This mirrors its film and television production strategy, which relies heavily on external production.
The closures are part of a wider trend of consolidation and cost-cutting in the global gaming industry. Sony, Ubisoft, and Microsoft are also reducing their studio footprints.
Despite the closures, Netflix keeps a dedicated first-party studio in Helsinki called Next Games. It continues to focus on streaming games to TVs and PCs using mobile devices as controllers.
As Netflix refines its gaming strategy, it faces ongoing market skepticism.
Market skepticism. Netflix faces ongoing market skepticism, with few major upcoming projects currently announced to signal a long-term shift in its gaming trajectory.
Netflix is further scaling back its internal video game development operations by closing two studios: the Los Angeles-based Night School and the Helsinki-based Moonloot. This decision follows a series of recent organizational shifts, including the closure of Team Blue and Boss Fight, as well as the divestment of Spry Fox. These moves reflect a broader strategic pivot toward prioritizing specific gaming categories, such as party games, story-driven titles, and mainstream-oriented experiences, while simultaneously reducing the company's reliance on a large roster of internal production studios.
The closures are part of a wider trend of consolidation and cost-cutting currently affecting the global gaming industry, with major entities like Sony, Ubisoft, and Microsoft similarly reducing their studio footprints. For Netflix, the shift mirrors its established business model for film and television, which relies heavily on external production rather than internal studio ownership. While the company continues to invest in gaming as a value-add for subscribers, it is increasingly focusing its internal resources on a centralized team that collaborates with external developers and maintains a smaller, specialized first-party presence.
Despite the recent release of the horror title Unhinged, which received positive internal feedback regarding its performance, the company remains committed to organizational changes aimed at sharpening its execution. The exact number of job losses resulting from these latest closures remains undisclosed. As Netflix continues to refine its gaming strategy—moving away from mobile-exclusive content toward TV and PC streaming—it faces ongoing market skepticism, with few major upcoming projects currently announced to signal a long-term shift in its gaming trajectory.