South of Midnight’s David Sears Suggests He Warned About High Spending
The creative director said he probably would have cut funding sooner if he had been running Xbox, despite wanting to make the game.
South of Midnight creative director David Sears has suggested he warned people about high spending during the game’s development. Looking back, he described the spending as unsustainable.
In an interview with MinnMax’s Ben Hanson, Sears said he had warned that a funding cutoff could have “really traumatic results downstream.” Hanson described Sears as thankful for Microsoft’s support before asking whether he would have cut the funding sooner if he had been running Xbox. Sears replied, “Yeah, probably.”
Sears said he wanted to make South of Midnight and acknowledged that he would have been inclined to cut someone else’s funding before his own project’s. The exchange begins around 48 minutes into the interview.
Sears has since left Compulsion Games and is now creative director at game development support studio Orphan Toyz LLC. The Southern folklore-inspired adventure launched on Xbox and PC in 2025, receiving critical acclaim and winning awards.
Compulsion Games became independent in August 2026 after facing a risk of closure under Microsoft. On August 11, the studio replaced Xbox Game Studios as the listed Steam publisher for South of Midnight. The storefront change alone did not establish the studio’s ownership or explain its wider publishing arrangements.
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South of Midnight
Developed by Compulsion Games
South of Midnight is a new action-adventure from Compulsion Games. Explore the mythos and confront mysterious creatures of the Deep South in this modern folktale while learning to weave an ancient power to surmount obstacles and face the pain haunting your hometown.
- Genre Platform, Adventure
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Perspective Third person
- Modes Single player
- Release April 8, 2025
- Publisher Xbox Game Studios
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Age Rating
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Time to Beat
- Main + Extras
- 11.3h
- Completionist
- 19h
