Double Fine and Compulsion Games have officially confirmed that they will once again become independent companies as part of the largest restructuring in Xbox history. Both teams thanked Microsoft for years of cooperation and announced that they would retain the rights to their games and intellectual property.
Xbox announced the massive changes on Monday. The division's CEO, Asha Sharma, called the events "the most significant restructuring in Xbox history." In addition to laying off thousands of employees, the company decided to part ways with five game studios, selling them or spinning them off into independent companies.
Psychonauts creators Double Fine and South of Midnight developers Compulsion Games will return to independent management. Under the terms of the agreement, both studios retain their game catalogs and rights to all their franchises, and will also receive investments for further development.
Earlier, Sharma explained that after analyzing the business, management concluded that Xbox "is not the best home for every type of studio." According to her, the growth rate of the gaming division was lower than expected, despite a long-term strategy of major acquisitions.
Compulsion Games joined Xbox in 2018, and Double Fine was acquired a year later.
In a message to fans, Double Fine thanked Xbox for seven years of collaboration.
We are grateful to everyone at Xbox for seven wonderful years together and for helping us find a solution that preserved our history and culture, and returned the rights to our games to us.
The developers also thanked players for their support in recent weeks and promised to announce their future plans soon.
Compulsion Games stated that they are excited to continue their journey as an independent studio.
Today we are announcing that Compulsion Games is returning to independent management after a period of being part of Xbox. As part of this transition, we retain the rights to Contrast, We Happy Few, and the award-winning South of Midnight.