South of Midnight Director Says He Might Not Fund It

David Sears, creative director of Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight, said he probably would not have approved funding for the game if he had been in charge of Xbox. He described the company’s spending under its previous leadership as unsustainable in hindsight.

Sears recalled warning colleagues that Xbox’s funding approach could have severe consequences for studios and projects. He said someone could eventually close the “money tap,” producing “really traumatic results downstream.”

When asked whether he would have ended the spending earlier, Sears replied, “Yeah, probably.” He said he wanted to make South of Midnight, but acknowledged that he likely would have stopped funding other projects before reaching his own. “I’m not completely selfless,” he said.

South of Midnight was released in April 2025 and received positive reviews. Microsoft has not released sales figures. SteamDB records an all-time peak of 1,438 concurrent players for the PC version. The figure excludes players who accessed the game through Xbox Game Pass, where it was available from launch.

A PlayStation 5 version was released later. Compulsion Games was one of four Microsoft-owned studios that the company parted ways with in July as part of a restructuring under Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.

Sears’ comments followed remarks from Double Fine Productions in a documentary. Members of the studio described presenting Microsoft with a project they considered difficult to approve and being surprised when the company agreed to fund it. The project became Keeper, which did not achieve major commercial success. Double Fine was also among the studios Microsoft parted ways with in July.