David Sears told MinnMax the era of Xbox's wide-open "money tap" was great for creators but "unsustainable," and he says he warned people it would end. Here's exactly what he said and what it tells us about where Xbox is going.
David Sears, the creative director behind South of Midnight, sat down with MinnMax’s Ben Hanson for a long career interview published today, Nov 2. Most of it covers his decades in games, from Looking Glass to the canceled Rainbow Six Patriots. But one answer about Xbox is the part everybody is talking about today: when Hanson asked if he would not have funded South of Midnight himself, Sears said, “Yeah, probably.”
What you need to know
- Who: David Sears, creative director of South of Midnight at Compulsion Games and design director on We Happy Few. In the interview intro, MinnMax says he is now in consulting with his own company, Orphan Toys.
- Where: a MinnMax interview with Ben Hanson, posted Nov 2, 2026. The Xbox funding talk starts around the 52-minute mark.
- The big line: he says he warned people during development that someone would one day shut off the “money tap,” with “really traumatic results downstream.”
- The twist: he is grateful Xbox backed the game, but says that in hindsight the spending was “unsustainable.”
- The kicker: he also says today’s Microsoft is much “more humane” than the company he knew in the ’90s, pointing to the fact that it let studios spin off instead of just shutting them down.
What he said
South of Midnight’s Director Says He Probably Wouldn’t Have Funded His Own Game, and Xbox Fans Should Hear WhyPer Kotaku’s write-up of the interview, Sears talked about Xbox funding games like South of Midnight and Double Fine’s Keeper, games built for prestige and long-term cultural value more than big profits. He said he told people during development:
“Somebody is going to say, one day, ‘The money tap, we’re closing those floodgates.’ And that’s going to have really traumatic results downstream.”
Hanson summed it up: “So the idea is, you’re thankful that Microsoft supported the hell out of South of Midnight…but you would not have funded it yourself?”
Sears answered, “Yeah, probably,” and kept going:
“I wanted to make it. No doubt. Obviously. Because we made it. Would I have turned off someone else’s money flow before South of Midnight? Yeah. Because I’m not completely selfless. It just seems like, in hindsight at least, it was unsustainable.”
He also said other directors used to ask him if this was “a golden era,” and his answer was always “For now.”
Important context: Sears was answering a hypothetical from the interviewer. He did not say Xbox was wrong to make the game, and he made it clear he wanted to make it.
How we got here
- 2018: Microsoft bought Compulsion Games, right around the release of We Happy Few.
- April 8, 2025: South of Midnight launched on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and went on to win a pile of awards, including a BAFTA.
- July 6, 2026: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced what she called “the most significant restructure in Xbox history,” with 3,200 job cuts and five studios divested. Compulsion was one of them.
- Aug 11, 2026: Compulsion closed a management buyout and went independent, keeping the rights to Contrast, We Happy Few and South of Midnight. CEO Guillaume Provost told GamesBeat at the time, “I would say the exit was gracious on Microsoft’s part.”
- Now: Compulsion is working on a project that was already in development and talking with partners. No new game has been announced.
OnPoint’s take: Real talk: this is one of the most honest things a developer has said about the old Xbox era, and Xbox fans should take it as a W, not a dunk.
Think about what Sears is actually saying. The guy who got the money is telling you the money flow didn’t make sense as a business. That’s the same thing Asha said when she pulled the trigger on the reset. Nobody likes layoffs, and nobody should cheer them. But when the creative director of one of Xbox’s most acclaimed games says out loud that the open tap couldn’t last, it backs up the idea that Xbox needed to get serious about running a sustainable business so the games we actually want keep coming.
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Here’s what people are missing. South of Midnight still exists. Xbox funded a BAFTA winner, gave a small Montreal studio the room to make the best thing it ever made, and then, instead of closing it, let the team walk out the door with all of its games. Sears himself calls that “more humane.” Provost called the exit “gracious.” That’s not the story of a company that doesn’t care about creators.
The lesson for Xbox going forward is simple: pick your swings. Prestige games are worth making, but they need a budget that matches what they can realistically do. If the new Xbox can fund the next South of Midnight with a smart budget instead of an endless one, everybody wins, players most of all. It is what it is, and honestly, it’s a healthier place for Xbox to be.
Image: Microsoft / Compulsion Games, OnPoint 4 Gamers graphic
Sources
- MinnMax (YouTube): South Of Midnight’s David Sears On Xbox’s Perplexing Management (Nov 2, 2026)
- Kotaku: South Of Midnight Director Says He Doesn’t Think Xbox Should Have Funded It (Nov 2, 2026)
- VGC: Compulsion Games has completed its buyout from Xbox
- GamesBeat: Compulsion Games pulls off management buyout and separates from Xbox
- ResetEra discussion: South of Midnight Creative Director thread
