South of Midnight Creative Director Would Have Turned Off Xbox 'Money Tap' Earlier, Says Funding Was 'Unsustainable'

"There’s always a night when Rome burns."David Sears, creative director of South of Midnight, said in a recent interview that he was always worried about the previous era of Xbox's infamous development funding "money tap," and admitted he would probably have turned it off earlier.The Xbox Game Studios-published South of Midnight launched in 2025, seven years after Compulsion Games' previous game came out. While it enjoyed critical acclaim, it failed commercially. Compulsion split from Xbox this year amid CEO Asha Sharma's "reset" of Microsoft's video game business, which has seen thousands of staff lose their jobs, multiple owned studios go independent, and multiple projects canceled.In an interview with MinnMax, Sears said he was always worried Microsoft's generous funding of South of Midnight would end. “I literally told people, I was like, 'Wow, this could be terrible,’” he said. “Because somebody is going to say one day, 'You know the money tap? We're closing those floodgates.' And that's going to have really traumatic results downstream.”The 100 Best Xbox Games of All TimeNext, he was asked if he’d have turned off the tap earlier himself if he was in charge of Xbox, to which he replied: “Yeah, probably.”“I wanted to make [South of Midnight], no doubt. Obviously, because we made it,” he continued. “Would I have turned off someone else's money flow before South of Midnight? Yeah, because I'm not completely selfless. But in hindsight at least, it was unsustainable. So, of course it was going to have a shocking outcome."Microsoft bought Compulsion in mid-2018 as part of a spate of acquisitions designed to bolster subscription service Game Pass' day-one offering under previous gaming boss Phil Spencer. That summer, Xbox's ranks were swollen by the arrival of Forza Horizon developer Playground, State of Decay developer Undead Labs, Hellblade developer Ninja Theory, the aforementioned Compulsion Games, then, later that year, inXile and Obsidian. Microsoft also formed a new studio in Santa Monica called The Initiative, which worked on the canceled Perfect Dark reboot. Microsoft acquired Double Fine the following year, in June 2019.“It’s easy to dissect it now, but at the time I would talk to other directors who would be like, ‘How is this happening? How did we get so lucky? Is this a golden era?’ And I would always be like, ‘For now.’ There’s always a night when Rome burns. I didn’t know exactly when it would be but I was always worried about it. “But to their credit — amazing. I think there’s definitely a corporate Microsoft DNA, but they are vastly different from the Microsoft I knew back in the ‘90s and early 2000s — much more humane, actually. It’s remarkable and commendable.”Sears went on to praise Microsoft for letting studios spin off from Xbox rather than shut them down, pointing to how Microsoft bought Ensemble Studios only to shut it down after a couple of games. Like Psychonauts developer Double Fine and State of Decay maker Undead Labs, Compulsion Games secured its independence instead of being closed.Deathloop and Dishonored 2 developer Arkane Lyon, however, is still looking for a buyer as Xbox explores options to split from the studio. Hellblade developer Ninja Theory went through the same process, but didn’t find a buyer and closed as a result. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that the next mainline Halo game will be developed by Call of Duty maker Activision, with mass layoffs hitting Halo Studios. Xbox has moved Age of Empires developer World's Edge and Sea of Thieves developer Rare under the Activision umbrella. Microsoft is doubling down on its biggest video game franchises as it works to improve revenue at Xbox and grow its profit margin.South of Midnight was Compulsion's third game, following Contrast in 2013 and We Happy Few in 2018. It retains ownership of its games and publishing rights despite leaving Xbox.Kirk McKeand is a Contributor on IGN News. Find him on Twitter @MckKirkIn This Article