South of Midnight shines on Game Pass as Compulsion faces possible closure

On June 10 Bloomberg reported that Xbox was planning major layoffs in July, and company leaders Asha Sharma and Matt Booty published a memo about an impending “Xbox Reset.” A week later that reset is beginning to look like severe downsizing: at least three Xbox-owned studios are in danger of being closed, and one of them is Compulsion Games.

Compulsion, best known for Contrast and We Happy Few, was bought by Microsoft in 2018 and has released just one game since: 2025’s South of Midnight. The adventure places you in the Deep South as Hazel, a young Weaver searching for her mother after a hurricane, and unfolds as a modern, gothic folktale.

The game fills its world with memorable, folkloric characters — from a giant talking catfish and a blues legend to the child-stealing Huggin’ Molly — and pairs stop-motion animation with lively music. Its melee combat is serviceable but repetitive, and encounters can be skipped so players can return quickly to the story.

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