Here’s an idea: Maybe don’t acquire something you have no idea what to do with.

So par for the course for Netflix. Release something that is good but not great and close/cancel everything involved.

Well, cancelling successful products is pretty on-brand for Netflix.

The enshittification will continue until profits improve.

Coming from a corporate background, it's clear that these megacorps are treating the smaller companies a mere project teams... Once the game is shipped you reassign/scatter the team to new projects.

They are ignoring the whole "greater than the sum of its parts" bit of the smaller developers they are killing... Or maybe they are and don't want to allow these smaller companies to grow into another rockstar

I fucking hate business majors, get them the hell out of video game development.

You can't run a videogame company if you think like a business suit.

Make a bad game? Unemployment.

Make a great game? Also unemployment.

What's the fucking point to any of this.

Never do business with Netflix. If you have a TV series that you would actually like to have a conclusion, a video game studio you would like to produce at least 2 fucking games before you're all fired, then don't do business with Netflix. Just don't. I'm struggling to have much sympathy for creatives who get fucked like this by Netflix, because they've shown us through hundreds of examples over the years that getting fucked is the most likely outcome. It's like playing Russian roulette with your life's work just because one of the chambered rounds is actually a little flag with "JACKPOT" written on it that will pop out instead of a life-ending bullet, but the other 5 chambers all have a live round in them.

I had no idea Night School was acquired by Netflix. I love their games. They deserve better.

Game studios should stop selling out to giant corporations.

What a shame - Netflix have given up on doing anything at all imaginative, and have fallen back on making Harry Potter and FIFA games, chucking everyone else to the wolves.

In some ways, having someone with a head for business would appear to make sense for a gaming studio. You could look at most of the announcements from eg. Obsidian or Double Fine on their intention to make 'Scope Creep: The Video Game', guaranteed to release massively over-budget to critical success but modest sales which will put the studio into a lot of trouble; and think that someone holding the purse strings, keeping the creatives from their worst excesses, and vetoing any really stupid ideas would be a clever idea. Unfortunately, this role always seems to go to dumb-arse dipshits without a single thought in their heads.

Would appear that an Indie Studio of three people might be ideal - Suspicious Developments, Team Cherry, Cuzzillo/Boch/Foddy have put out some great stuff recently. Small enough to stay focussed, and also small enough to put in a few years of polish without running up crazy bills. Seems like Night School, being four people, was just a bit too big.

Son of a bitch

Fuck netflix. They are throwing spaghetti at the wall trying to keep stock prices going and this is a casualty.

Big companies destroying game companies for a quick buck is so exhausting.