Compulsion Games Gains Full Rights to South of Midnight After Xbox Spin-Off

Q: With Compulsion's Steam takeover, who actually profits if you buy South of Midnight on a console today?

If you buy **South of Midnight on console today, the most likely primary beneficiary is still Xbox/Microsoft**, not Compulsion Games directly. That is because the publisher change has been clearly documented on **Steam**, where Compulsion is now listed as the publisher after regaining independence and rights control. Reporting around the shift says that **future Steam sales should benefit Compulsion directly rather than Xbox**. On consoles, though, the picture appears different for now. The **Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, and other non-Steam storefronts reportedly still list Xbox or Microsoft as the publisher**. That strongly suggests console revenue is still flowing under the old publishing arrangement unless and until those storefronts are updated and the underlying rights and payment structures are transferred. There is some uncertainty because storefront metadata can lag behind legal and financial changes. It is possible the console rights transfer is still in progress and public listings simply have not caught up. But based on the evidence available now, **a console purchase today likely still sends the publisher’s share to Microsoft/Xbox**, while the platform holder also takes its usual store cut. So the practical answer is simple: **buying on Steam is the clearest way to support Compulsion directly right now; buying on console probably still benefits Microsoft/Xbox unless those listings change.**

3 articles · Updated · Kotaku · Aug 13

Compulsion Games is now listed on Steam as the publisher of South of Midnight, signaling that the studio has taken full control of the game after its split from Xbox.
All purchase proceeds now go to Compulsion rather than Xbox, giving the spun-off studio direct revenue from a title it launched last year.
The change follows Xbox's reset last month, which cut thousands of jobs and also hit some Compulsion staff during the separation.
For Compulsion, the rights transfer is a rare upside from that restructuring, leaving the studio with ownership of one of its best-known releases.