In the wake of the South of Midnight game director's scathing assessment of the publisher's past funding methodology, Xbox is turning its attention to how it supports game development. David Sears owned up to the fact that the company's bottomless money pit days are over. Sears was likely to not fund the project had he been an exec at the current time. The reason why this is important is because it marks a departure from the lavish investment levels that were the hallmark of Xbox's past few years with former leadership.
Director David Sears says he would not fund the game under current leadership
David Sears, the director of South of Midnight, has some choice words to say about development of the game under Xbox. We're getting a big strategy overhaul at Xbox, courtesy of new CEO Asha Sharma. This has involved some big layoffs and shutting down of some in-house studios. The overall aim is to get Xbox's spending habits to be in line with long-term profitability, rather than grab market share.
As part of this new strategy, Xbox studios will need to make an investable business case for any new projects. CEO of inXile Entertainment Brian Fargo corroborates the news. This new fiscal mindset is a key element of Xbox's new game development strategy. Xbox wants to make sure any game that gets funded has a viable business case before development.
South of Midnight was released on PC, Xbox, PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2. The game has generally received mixed to positive reviews from the critics. However, despite the reviews, the game is said to have performed poorly commercially.
This would have likely led to the game director's commentary about funding in retrospect. We have been closely following South of Midnight's development – check our coverage here: South of Midnight Sweeps Canadian Game.
Xbox's pivot to a more disciplined fiscal approach is a definitive end to the bottomless funding well of the past. They're now turning towards a path of sustainable growth and will require an investable business case for all future projects. This is to help ensure the publisher remains in a healthy financial position while still providing the support for top notch game development.
Limitless funding was never sustainable anyway. This was inevitable.
Does the new investable business case mean we get fewer ambitious titles or just safer ones?
Likely safer ones. The shift to profitability usually prioritizes proven IP over experimental projects.
so we are finally getting the games we actually asked for? lol
I still do not trust this pivot. They will likely kill any mid tier support to cut costs.
Imagine if they funded the graphics tech instead of just the art direction. 🤔
Poor commercial performance is the real story here. The funding model was just a symptom.