Netflix Shuts Down Night School Studio and Moonloot Games as Gaming Strategy Narrows
Netflix is closing Night School Studio and Moonloot Games, two of its in-house game development studios, as the company shifts its gaming strategy toward party games and titles streamed directly to televisions. The Verge confirmed the closures on August 13, 2026, with initial reporting by Game File and Variety.
Night School Studio, best known for the Oxenfree series of narrative adventure games, was acquired by Netflix in 2021 and was one of the company's earliest studio purchases as it moved into interactive entertainment. The Verge The studio had recently released Unhinged, a horror experience designed for TVs, and in 2025 launched a mobile game tied to the show Black Mirror. Night School's last game shipped roughly six weeks before the shutdown was announced, according to VGC.
Moonloot Games, a Helsinki-based studio founded in 2022, is also being closed. The Verge Variety independently reported the studio's shutdown alongside Night School's.
Netflix spokesperson Chrissy Kelleher said the company is making organizational changes to its games business to align with four priority categories: kids, party, narrative, and what Netflix terms "mainstream" games. Kelleher confirmed that "some" additional roles are being eliminated beyond the two studio closures. The Verge
The cuts extend to individual contributors. Tara Voelker, who described herself as the "single accessibility person" on Netflix's gaming team, is among those affected. The Verge
The broader context here is one of a steady pullback. The closures continue a pattern that stretches back at least to October 2024, when Netflix shut down Team Blue, its AAA studio in Southern California. (AAA refers to games with large budgets and production scale, comparable to blockbuster films.) Game File By December 2025, Netflix had sold Spry Fox back to its co-founders, David Edery and Daniel Cook, who regained ownership rather than seeing the studio dissolved. Game File Netflix's acquisition history also included Next Games and Boss Fight Entertainment, alongside Night School and Spry Fox. Game File
Taken together, the trajectory is clear. Netflix entered gaming through acquisition, built a portfolio of studios spanning narrative adventure (Night School), mobile (Next Games, Spry Fox), and mid-core games (Boss Fight), and has since been systematically narrowing that footprint. Team Blue's AAA ambitions were cut first. Spry Fox was returned to its founders. Now Night School, one of the most recognizable names in the portfolio, and Moonloot, a relatively young studio, are being wound down entirely.
The stated strategy — kids, party, narrative, and mainstream games streamed to TVs — suggests Netflix is converging on a model where games function as a living-room entertainment layer rather than a standalone mobile gaming business. Night School's Unhinged, a TV-based horror experience, fits that direction, yet the studio was still closed. Even studios producing content aligned with the new strategic focus are not guaranteed survival.
Stephen Totilo, writing for Game File, framed the closures as part of Netflix's continuing shrinkage of its internal game studio operation. The framing is accurate. Each closure or divestment since late 2024 has reduced the number of studios Netflix directly operates, and the company has not announced new studio acquisitions to replace them.
The loss of a sole dedicated accessibility specialist at a company of Netflix's resources tells you something about the internal priority level of the games initiative more clearly than any press statement could. For developers watching from outside, the signal is mixed. Netflix remains in gaming; it is building for TV streaming and party experiences. But the days of acquiring established studios and giving them broad creative latitude appear to be over, replaced by a narrower, more platform-specific mandate.
Whether that narrower focus produces a sustainable games business or simply a slower retreat will depend on whether TV-streamed titles can attract and retain an audience that has so far shown limited enthusiasm for Netflix's mobile offerings.
