South of Midnight was one of 2025’s seemingly innumerable highlights—in their 83% review, evergreen writer Andrea Shearon called it “a Deep South delight drenched in superstition and pain.” If you’ve been holding off but nonetheless rooting for the award-winning studio behind it, Compulsion Games, now’s a great time to dive in: it’s independent again after a lengthy stay under the Xbox Game Studios banner.

After rumors of closure came in the wake of Xbox’s most recent layoff-heavy bloodbath, Compulsion announced it’d be leaving Microsoft instead and pursuing other partnerships. On Thursday, CEO Guillaume Provost explained to GamesBeat that “the management buyout is complete and that it owns its original intellectual property games again, as Microsoft has transferred the IP back to Compulsion Games,” according to the article. “Provost said management has acquired the studio and staff as well.”