Opinion: South Of Midnight Dev Could Become An Xbox Game Studios Gem

So, just before a recent break from work to celebrate a birthday milestone I’d rather not talk about, I had the pleasure of playing and reviewing South of Midnight – which has ended up becoming one of my favourite Xbox Game Studios releases in donkey’s years. In fact, pull the fantastic but ultimately evolutionary Forza Horizon 4 out of the mix, and South of Midnight might be my top XGS release since 2014’s Sunset Overdrive. Yes, that long!

It’s just a bit of a magical thing, ain’t it? SOM isn’t the most cutting-edge, complex game in the world – but it harkens back to a time before exponential growth and games-as-a-service utterly dominated the gaming landscape. South of Midnight is just a game, one with an engrossing storyline, beautiful visuals, great characters, engaging performances – pretty much everything you want from a single-player adventure on Xbox.

To that end, it really felt like Compulsion Games took all of its learnings from Contrast and We Happy Few and piled them into creating South of Midnight – and I reckon this team has the chance to become something a little bit special amongst the Xbox Game Studios lineup. Microsoft has bigger teams, more important teams for its bottom line – but after consolidation, multiple studio closures and a tumultuous few years in general, a developer like Compulsion is crucial to Microsoft’s gaming identity.

As followers of Xbox Game Studios for a long long time, we’ve been dying to see more teams have the space to flex their creative muscle. We went through the Halo, Gears & Forza years — which were still exciting by the way — followed by a dry period and then lots of acquisitions. One of those pickups ended up being Compulsion Games back in 2018; a purchase that’s finally delivered exactly what we want from Xbox.

I can’t sit here and say I don’t worry at all about the studio’s future, though. When this team was acquired and SOM was ultimately greenlit, the industry was in a totally different place – heck, the world was in a totally different place. Microsoft has acquired Bethesda, Activision and doubled down on its blockbuster games strategy since then, not to mention its multiplatform approach to bringing in more money as well. The gaming world feels more risk-averse than ever; I just hope Xbox is still willing to let creative teams like this craft special games like this one.

Ultimately, we don’t know what’s next for the South of Midnight studio – but whatever it starts making next, I hope it contains the same level of freedom, creativity and sheer gaming joy that its recent Xbox Game Pass release possesses. I hesitate to say that I’d like to see a sequel, because honestly, something brand-new would be great – but SOM could be a fantastic launch pad for Compulsion and what it does next either way. Microsoft, forge this team into an XGS gem and allow them the freedom to create another banger – we deserve it!

How do you feel about South of Midnight and what’s next for the team? Drop your thoughts down in the comments.