The split between Xbox and Compulsion Games just got a lot more official. South of Midnight, the action-adventure game that launched in April 2025, now lists Compulsion Games itself as the publisher on Steam, replacing Xbox Game Studios in that slot. It's a small metadata change, but it carries real weight given everything that's happened at Microsoft over the past year.
The change was first spotted by indie developer Michael Klamerus on Bluesky, and it lines up with what's been an ongoing restructuring at Xbox. Compulsion Games was one of four studios that Microsoft spun out independently as part of its broader "reset," a sweeping set of changes that included thousands of layoffs across the company.
What the Steam listing actually means
Here's the thing about publisher credits on Steam: they're not cosmetic. The publisher field determines who receives the revenue from purchases made through the platform. With Compulsion Games now in that slot for South of Midnight, the studio is collecting the money directly rather than routing it through Xbox Game Studios.
That's a meaningful operational shift. It suggests the legal and financial separation between Compulsion and Microsoft has moved well beyond a press release and into the actual infrastructure of how the game is sold.
The other studios tell a different story
What makes this notable is that Compulsion appears to be ahead of the curve compared to its peers from the same restructuring wave. Double Fine's Psychonauts 2 still lists Xbox Game Studios as publisher on Steam, even though Double Fine also became independent through the same process. Undead Labs and Ninja Theory are in a different position entirely: both studios were acquired by publishers that haven't been publicly named yet, so their Steam pages for State of Decay 3 and Senua still carry the old Xbox branding by default.
Compulsion moving first suggests either a cleaner contractual separation or a more proactive push from the studio to establish its independent identity.
A rough stretch for Xbox, but the picture is complicated
Zooming out, this is one small piece of a much larger and messier story for Xbox. The platform has had a difficult stretch, with internal restructuring, studio closures, and the kind of uncertainty that makes it hard to stay excited about what's coming. Halo: Campaign Evolved posted early sales numbers that split almost evenly between Xbox and PS5 buyers, which tells you something about where the brand stands with its traditional audience.
Still, Compulsion walking away with full ownership of its Steam presence is a win for the studio. South of Midnight was a genuinely interesting release, and the team now has direct control over how it's sold and what happens with it going forward.
For players who already own the game or are thinking about picking it up, nothing changes on the experience side. The game itself is the same. But if you buy it on Steam now, your money goes straight to the people who made it, which is a different proposition than it was at launch.
If you want to get deeper into the game itself, the South of Midnight guides cover the game's systems in detail. For a broader look at what's worth playing right now, the full gaming guides hub has you covered across platforms and genres.
