Netflix Cuts Jobs at Oxenfree Developer Despite Record Subscriber Increase
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Key points
- Netflix has laid off staff at Oxenfree series developer Night School Studio despite a record increase of nearly 19 million new subscribers.
- The layoffs follow a broader trend of shakeups within Netflix’s gaming division, including the closure of another internal studio in 2024.
- Oxenfree sold over 1.5 million copies in three years after launch.
Netflix has reportedly laid off staff at Night School Studio, developer of the Oxenfree series, despite a record increase of nearly 19 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024 and recent price hikes in some regions.
Besides the record increase in subscribers, the layoff news also comes on the heels of Netflix’s recent increase in subscription prices for the US in January and for the UK in February 2025.
This move also follows other big changes in Netflix’s gaming division. In October 2024, the company shut down a major internal studio led by former Halo creative head Joseph Staten, scrapping an unannounced big-budget game in the process.
Indie developer Night School Studio, which Netflix acquired in 2021, launched its most successful title, Oxenfree, in 2016. As of October 2019, the first part of the 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.
