Oxenfree developer Night School has been hit by layoffs, although how many staff have been affected by the move is unclear at the moment.
Per Game Developer, an "undisclosed number of employees" have been laid off at Night School, which was acquired by parent company Netflix back in 2021 as part of a wider expansion into the gaming industry.
While the layoffs apparently won't affect the games Night School is currently working on, Game Developer says that "current and former Night School employees" were "shocked" by the layoffs, which were revealed to the team in January.
Despite these layoffs, Night School posted on LinkedIn just yesterday that it's hiring a lead artist, a game director, and a senior producer, which probably isn't going to be particularly comforting to those who have been let go.
Game Developer says that Netflix declined to comment on the situation, so these layoffs haven't officially been confirmed by Night School's parent company, but a couple of ex-Night School employees have posted about the situation on LinkedIn within the past couple of weeks.
Night School isn't the only studio to be targeted by Netflix's apparent desire to slim down its gaming industry presence in recent months. Back in October, the company reportedly shut down star-studded AAA studio "Team Blue", which counted luminaries like Halo's Joseph Staten and Overwatch's Chacko Sonny among its ranks.
That was shortly before Netflix announced it would go all-in on generative AI for its gaming division, appointing a dedicated AI VP in Mike Verdu, who previously worked as Netflix's overall gaming VP.
Frustratingly, Netflix has never been particularly transparent when it comes to its gaming metrics, so we don't know exactly why these layoffs are happening.
We can, however, assume that it's probably part of a wider industry trend that has also seen studios like Liquid Swords, Iron Galaxy, and even bigger companies like BioWare letting staff go in recent months.
