Compulsion Games is now listed as the publisher of South of Midnight on Steam, in place of Xbox Game Studios. IGN reports that the change points to a completed separation between the Montreal studio and Xbox, which spun Compulsion out as an independent developer during the restructuring it carried out alongside thousands of layoffs.
Compulsion was one of four studios Xbox made independent during that process. The Steam listing change was first noticed by indie developer Michael Klamerus, who posted about it on Bluesky, according to IGN.
South of Midnight released in 2025 and went on to win awards, making it the most prominent title to move onto a spun-out studio’s own storefront credit rather than remaining under the Xbox publishing label.
Other spun-out studios still credit Xbox
The same change has not yet appeared elsewhere. Xbox Game Studios remains the listed publisher of Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2 on Steam, even though the San Francisco studio also became independent in the same round of changes.
Undead Labs’ State of Decay 3 and Ninja Theory’s Senua are also still credited to Xbox Game Studios. Both studios were acquired by other publishers whose identities have not been revealed, IGN notes, which leaves their storefront credits unchanged for now.
IGN’s report does not include comment from Xbox or from Compulsion Games on the Steam change, and does not say whether the remaining listings are expected to follow. The publishers that acquired Undead Labs and Ninja Theory have still not been named publicly.
The change lands in what IGN describes as a rough year for Xbox employees and players alike, pointing most recently to tepid early sales for Halo: Campaign Evolved. The outlet also lists what Xbox has coming: Gears of War: E-Day in October, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 following two Black Ops entries, Forza Horizon 6 arriving on PlayStation before the end of the year, and Fable returning in February.
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