Compulsion Games staff are openly job-hunting ahead of expected Xbox layoffs in July

Compulsion Games leadership has quietly given staff permission to look for new jobs before any official cuts are announced — and that's why a wave of LinkedIn posts from South of Midnight developers has been hitting feeds over the past week. Nobody has been laid off yet, but the writing is on the wall.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier clarified the situation in a Reddit comment: "Xbox's layoffs are not beginning until early July. What happened at Compulsion is that studio leadership gave their employees permission to openly look for work because they almost certainly will be losing their jobs then." Among those who've posted publicly are writer and narrative designer Bijan Stephen, principal level designer Mike Sklavounos, principal game designer Cameron McGrory, technical animator Ines Bouakkaoui, and dialogue designer Sean Miller — spanning multiple departments across the studio.

Compulsion Games, the Montreal studio behind South of Midnight, was reported earlier this month to be in negotiations over its future as part of a broader Xbox restructuring. Closure or a spin-off with a new backer are said to be the two most likely outcomes. Ninja Theory — developers of Hellblade — and Double Fine — the studio behind Psychonauts — are reportedly in similarly uncertain positions. Xbox's new CEO has already acknowledged the company is "over-extended," signalling that the July cuts will be significant and wide-ranging across Microsoft's gaming division.

The fact that leadership is letting staff job-hunt openly rather than keeping them in the dark is a grim but telling signal. July is shaping up to be a brutal month for Xbox studios, and Compulsion's developers are clearly not waiting around to find out how it ends.