Avowed Game Director Departs Obsidian to Join Netflix Game Studio Night School
|
|
- The game director of Avowed quits Obsidian Entertainment after nearly 12 years for a new role at game studio Night School, owned by Netflix.
- Patel also participated in the creation of The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity series.
- Since March 28, 2025, Netflix officially aims to reach a broader audience with cloud-first, controller-free gaming, using smartphones.
Game director Carrie Patel, has announced her departure from Obsidian Entertainment after nearly 12 years for a new role at game studio Night School, owned by Netflix.
Patel, who was the face of Avowed during its development and previously worked on The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity series announced in a short Linkedin update that she has joined Netflix’s gaming division. She is now working as a game director at Night School, the developer behind Oxenfree.
As of October 2019, the first part of the Oxenfree series had sold over 1.5 million copies, and by March 2019, the game had been installed over 3 million times. In 2023, Night School launched Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, but it’s already been under the streaming service’s management.
In February 2025, Gaming.News reported that Netflix laid off staff at Night School studio despite the platform’s record increase of nearly 19 million new subscribers. These layoffs followed the news of Netflix canceling five already announced games: Compass Point, Lab Rat, Don’t Starve Together, Rotwood, Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game, and Thirsty Suitors.
Notably, in March 2025, the former head of Netflix Games, Mike Verdu, whose role was focused on utilizing generative AI, departed Netflix.
On top of that, on March 28, 2025, Netflix’s President of Games, Alain Tascan, announced that the company aims to reach a broader audience with cloud-first, controller-free gaming, using smartphones as the major input devices.
