Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions were recently divested from Xbox, returning both to the independent status they once held, along with their respective intellectual properties. This is a distinct situation from Undead Labs and Ninja Theory, which Xbox sold to new publishers.
Both studios now have to find a path towards financial stability, and though Xbox provided both with "runway" money for their next respective projects, game development is extremely expensive and maintaining a sizeable studio without a parent company means every single project needs to be completed on time and, crucially, needs to be a hit.
Compulsion Games is still waiting for that hit, with Contrast, We Happy Few and South of Midnight all receiving middling reviews and mediocre sales numbers. With the (relative) safety offered by Xbox gone, people are rightly worried about the future of the Montreal-based studio.
In a prudent move, Compulsion has announced its intention to become a support studio in the near future. In a post on LinkedIn, the studio announced it was open to leveraging its experience to support other projects.
"With Compulsion Games returning to its roots as an independent developer, we are expanding opportunities to collaborate with studios across...
