Xbox's Separation from Compulsion Games Seems Complete as Studio Is Listed as the Publisher of South of Midnight on Steam

Xbox's separation from Compulsion Games – one of four studios it spun out independently during the recent Xbox "reset" amidst thousands of layoffs – appears to be complete, as the developer itself is now listed as the publisher of 2025's award-winning South of Midnight on Steam instead of Xbox Game Studios.

The same is also currently true for Undead Labs' State of Decay 3 and Ninja Theory's Senua, though both of those studios were acquired by other publishers who have yet to be revealed. It's been a rough year for both Xbox employees and Xbox fans – including most recently tepid early sales numbers for Halo: Campaign Evolved – but there is at least some cool stuff to be optimistic about in the coming months, from Gears of War: E-Day's release in October (check out our multiplayer hands-on impressions – and the sick special-edition controllers) to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 giving us a break from Black Ops, the 10-out-of-10 Forza Horizon 6 pulling into PlayStation's driveway sometime before the end of the year, and Fable making its long-awaited return in February.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked , and a co-host of Next-Gen Console Watch . He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll. " Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan .