Montreal-based Compulsion Games is officially independent once more.
The Canadian South of Midnight developer confirmed to GamesBeat that it has successfully negotiated with Xbox to separate from the gaming giant after being acquired by it in 2018. Xbox has been laying off thousands of employees as part of a wider company reset, making it all the more notable that Compulsion managed to break off.
Thanks to @deantak.bsky.social for sitting down with Guillaume Provost to talk about Compulsion’s independence.
Every game you buy now directly supports Compulsion and helps fund our next project.gamesbeat.com/compulsion-g…
— Compulsion Games (@compulsiongames.bsky.social) August 20, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Compulsion CEO Guillaume Provost provided some more details in the GamesBeat interview, noting that the studio has also managed to retain the rights to South of Midnight as well its two prior games, 2013’s Contrast and 2018’s We Happy Few. As a result, he said purchases of these games will now directly and fully support Compulsion, not Microsoft.
Last week, there was discussion about store listings indicating that Compulsion had officially gone independent, although no one had confirmed that this was indeed true. Provost’s clarification now about who actually owns South of Midnight is important because there have been calls to boycott Xbox both because of their continued string of mass layoffs and Microsoft’s wider association with the Israeli government amid its genocidal war against Palestine.
Provost noted to GamesBeat that there’s been a “transition period” in terms of transferring the rights to Compulsion. However, he confirmed that “buying the games is supporting the studio as a result of that change.” He also said the exit was “gracious on Microsoft’s part,” acknowledging that they could have instead all lost their jobs.
Irrespective of Microsoft, South of Midnight has received significant praise in the gaming industry for its touching story about a young Black woman healing her community in the American Deep South, including winning a prestigious Peabody and sweeping the Canadian Game Awards in May. (Disclaimer: MobileSyrup was on the CGAs voting jury.)
And yet, just a few weeks after their big CGAs night, we learned that Xbox was potentially going to close Compulsion alongside several other studios, including Double Fine (Psychonauts) and Ninja Theory (Hellblade). Ultimately, these teams managed to negotiate their independence.
While it’s undeniably great to see all of these studios avoid closure, it’s important to stress that they must now contend with one of the worst periods the gaming industry has ever seen amid tens of thousands of layoffs while being independent. Provost admitted to GamesBeat that some employees left once the studio faced the risk of closure, but he wouldn’t confirm how many people are currently staffed there. That said, he said the bulk of the management team has stayed on and noted that most of the developers said they “would rather eat rocks and drink gasoline” than split up.
Going forward, Provost says he is exploring options for funding to keep Compulsion going. He also indicated that part of the team will continue to work on a new title that was in the early stages of development at Xbox prior to the separation.
“I just want to make sure that we’re setting the team up for success,” Provost said. “We’re going to take things slow. We’re going to meet with everyone.”
If you want to support this wonderful team, South of Midnight is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC. More information on the game, as well as Contrast and We Happy Few, can be found on the studio’s website.
Image credit: Compulsion Games
