South of Midnight director reflects on his constant concerns about funding at Xbox

We absolutely loved South of Midnight when it launched last year as Compulsion Jeux’ Xbox debut, and it’s still one of our favorite Xbox Game Studios releases of the last few years. But a year later, Xbox separated from the development team and supported the transformation back into an independent studio.

In short, it seems that Xbox wasn’t happy enough with the financial results of “South of Midnight,” and the same goes for other smaller releases from last year like Double Fine’s “Keeper” and “Kiln.”

Some fans had expressed concerns before these games were released that Xbox might invest too much money in them. On a recent podcast, South of Midnight director David Sears admitted that he was “always worried” that the funding situation might change and cause Xbox to “open the floodgates.”

Here is an excerpt from the MinnMax podcast where he said the following:

“I mean, Xbox has funded a lot of games. They’ve funded a lot of studios, too, and I thought, OK, all right, great. I think you’ve got a lot of money. Like I said before, I don’t want to bear the weight of that obligation of having to be responsible for a huge production cost or an army of 600 people. I want to create something that doesn’t bankrupt Microsoft, I think, or the gaming division.”

“Well, on the one hand, if everyone you work with is either working on making cross-generational games at not too high a cost, or games with big or really significant current commercial appeal, then that’s great. Then it’ll work. But when does that ever happen?”

“I literally told people, ‘Wow, this could be disastrous.’ Because at some point someone will say, ‘We’re closing these floodgates.’ And that’s going to have really traumatic consequences downstream.”

“I mean, [Xbox] has funded a whole bunch of games. They’ve also funded a whole bunch of studios that, you know, I thought, well, all right, great. I guess you have endless money. Like I said before, I don’t want to feel the weight of responsibility for a gigantic budget or an army of 600 people on my shoulders. I want to create something that doesn’t bankrupt Microsoft, I guess, or the games division.”

“Well, you know, on the one hand, if everyone you work with is either working on making cross-generational games at not too high a cost, or games with great or really significant current commercial success, then that’s great. Then it’ll work. But when does that ever happen?”

“I literally told people, ‘Wow, this could be disastrous.’ Because at some point someone will say, ‘We’re closing these floodgates.’ And that’s going to have really traumatic consequences downstream.”

Perhaps most shockingly, the director later admitted that while he was keen to develop South of Midnight, in retrospect it was probably not financially viable and a “shocking result” was almost inevitable.

I mean, I wanted to do it. No doubt, and of course because we did it. Would I have turned off someone else’s money stream before South of Midnight? Yes, because I am not completely selfless. But it doesn’t seem to have been sustainable, at least in retrospect. So it was clear that there would be a shocking result.

“I mean, it’s easy to analyze it now. At the time, I was talking to other directors and thinking, ‘How can this happen? How did we get to be so happy? Is this a golden era?’ And I kept saying, ‘For now, right? There will always be a night when Rome burns.’ I didn’t know exactly when it would happen, but I was always worried about it.”

I mean, I wanted to do it. No doubt, and of course because we did it. Would I turn off someone else’s money stream before South of Midnight? Yes, because I’m not completely selfless. But it seems to me, at least in retrospect, that it wasn’t sustainable. So of course a shocking result was to be expected.

I mean, it’s easy to analyze this now. At the moment I would talk to other directors and think: ‘How can this happen? How did we get so lucky? Is this a golden era?’ And I would always say, ‘For now, right? There will always be a night when Rome burns.’ And I didn’t know exactly when it would be, but I was always worried about it.

Of course, that’s not to say that Sears wasn’t proud of South of Midnight or that he didn’t think it was worthwhile, but it just seems that he was concerned about the Xbox money he spent on it (and expected back).

Nevertheless, overall he seems to have had a very positive experience working with Microsoft:

To their credit, it’s amazing, right? I think there’s definitely the DNA of Microsoft Corporate in there, but they’re completely different than the Microsoft I knew in the ’90s or early 2000s, right? Much more human, actually. It is remarkable and praiseworthy.

While working on South of Midnight, it became clear to me – some games are simply released at the wrong time. Some games are cross-generational, right? Something that conveys a good message or takes people to places that remain timeless will endure and will be found by the players.

To their credit, it’s amazing, right? I think there’s definitely corporate Microsoft DNA there, but they’re completely different than the Microsoft I knew in the ’90s or early 2000s, right? Much more human, actually. It is remarkable and praiseworthy.

While working on South of Midnight, it became clear to me – some games are simply released at the wrong time. Some games are cross-generational, right? Something that conveys a good message or places you in places that remain timeless will endure and will be found by those playing.

His prediction has finally come true — Xbox has “closed the floodgates” by divesting from several studios this year, including Compulsion Jeux, and apparently pursuing a new strategy focused on its own core franchises like Halo, Forza, Gears, Fallout and others.

We’re just glad that Compulsion Jeux didn’t completely fold and that South of Midnight actually made it to the public eye instead of being canceled during development. We think it could be one of those Sunset Overdrive-style titles in the future – a cult classic that people will truly appreciate from times past.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.