Compulsion Games Now Self-Publishing South of Midnight on Steam After Xbox Split
Key takeaways
- Compulsion Games replaced Xbox Game Studios as South of Midnight's Steam publisher after the studio's independence.
- Double Fine, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory still show Xbox Game Studios as publisher despite similar separations.
- Undead Labs and Ninja Theory have reportedly been acquired by undisclosed publishers following Xbox's restructuring.
Compulsion Games is now listed as the publisher of South of Midnight on Steam, replacing Xbox Game Studios in what appears to be the clearest sign yet that the studio's separation from Microsoft's gaming arm is effectively complete. The change was spotted by indie developer Michael Klamerus on Bluesky and brought to wider attention shortly after. South of Midnight, which launched in 2025 and earned award recognition for its distinctive Southern Gothic aesthetic, was among the titles caught up in Xbox's sweeping organizational changes earlier this year.
Xbox's so-called "reset" involved thousands of layoffs and the spinning out of four studios as independent entities. Compulsion Games — based in Montreal and known for We Happy Few before South of Midnight — was one of those four. The studio's publisher listing on Steam now formally reflects that new reality, even as the administrative details of such transitions often lag behind the actual business decisions.
Not every separated studio has seen its Steam listings updated in the same way. Xbox Game Studios remains the listed publisher on Double Fine's Psychonauts 2, despite the San Francisco-based studio also gaining independence following the restructuring. Similarly, Undead Labs' State of Decay 3 and Ninja Theory's Senua still carry Xbox Game Studios branding on Steam, though both studios have reportedly been acquired by publishers who have not yet been publicly named.
The inconsistency across Steam listings suggests the broader reorganization is still playing out behind the scenes, with publishing rights and contracts requiring time to formally transfer. For Compulsion specifically, the update may carry practical implications for how the studio handles future updates, pricing decisions, or DLC distribution for South of Midnight on Valve's platform.
Meanwhile, Xbox's 2025 gaming calendar still has several notable releases on the horizon. Gears of War: E-Day is scheduled for October, Forza Horizon 6 is expected to reach PlayStation before year's end, and Fable is set for a February release — giving Microsoft and its remaining first-party studios plenty of high-profile moments to work toward, even as the dust from the restructuring continues to settle.
The bigger picture
The Steam publisher change for South of Midnight is a small but symbolically loaded update. Publishing credits on digital storefronts are not cosmetic — they can determine who controls pricing, who receives platform revenue, and who holds the relationship with Valve for that product going forward. Compulsion Games taking that seat suggests the legal and contractual separation from Xbox Game Studios has progressed far enough to hand over real administrative ownership of the title.
The uneven state of these listings across studios is worth watching closely. Double Fine, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory still showing Xbox Game Studios as publisher likely reflects deals at different stages of completion rather than any preferential treatment. For Undead Labs and Ninja Theory in particular, the unknown acquirers add another layer of complexity — whoever picks up those studios will presumably need to negotiate how existing Steam pages, storefronts, and legacy titles get handled. Rivals like Sony and Take-Two have demonstrated that acquiring studios cleanly while preserving back-catalog branding is genuinely complicated work.
For players and PC game buyers, the practical takeaway right now is modest — South of Midnight on Steam isn't changing in any visible way. But developers and industry observers should read this as confirmation that Xbox's restructuring is generating real, lasting changes to who owns what in Microsoft's gaming portfolio. Future announcements about Undead Labs and Ninja Theory's new homes will be the next meaningful data points in understanding how fractured Xbox's first-party lineup has actually become.
We flagged this story because publisher listings on Steam rarely change without a genuine legal or contractual reason behind them, and this one caught our eye precisely because it's so understated. Xbox's studio shakeup has generated a lot of noise over the past year — layoffs, studio closures, independence announcements — but the granular follow-through, like who actually controls a game's storefront page, often tells you more about where things really stand than any press release does. We think our readers who follow Xbox and PC gaming deserve coverage that connects those dots rather than just surfacing the headline drama. The fact that other studios remain listed under Xbox Game Studios also raises a question worth sitting with: how long before we find out who actually bought Ninja Theory and Undead Labs? We'll be watching those Steam pages closely.
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