David Sears, creative director of South of Midnight, revealed in an interview with MinnMax that he was always concerned about Xbox's generous funding model under previous leadership. According to him, the company would open the "money tap" without guarantees of return, which would eventually have serious consequences.
"I literally told people, I was like, 'Yeah, wow, this could be terrible.' Because somebody is going to say, someday, 'The money tap... we're closing those floodgates.' And that's going to have really traumatic results downstream," Sears said. The director was clear: if he had been in Microsoft executives' position, he probably would have cut funding sooner.
South of Midnight launched in 2025 as an Xbox exclusive after seven years in development. The game earned critical acclaim but failed to deliver the commercial performance Microsoft expected. In 2026, Compulsion Games separated from Xbox and returned to independent studio status, part of Microsoft's strategic restructuring that resulted in mass layoffs across its gaming division.
Sears' comments reflect internal frustration with Xbox's spending strategy under its previous leadership, ended following the restructuring led by CEO Asha Sharma.
