Netflix has closed Boss Fight Entertainment, the Texas-based mobile studio it acquired in 2022, ending internal development on titles such as Squid Game: Unleashed. The shutdown was revealed in LinkedIn posts from studio leaders, who thanked staff and partners while confirming the closure. The games Squid Game: Unleashed and Netflix Stories remain available to subscribers.
The move comes days after Netflix executives again pointed to Squid Game: Unleashed as the kind of narrative title the company wants to offer, even as it tightens focus around party, narrative, kids, and mainstream games and explores play on TVs with phones as controllers. Leadership has framed this as a “less is more” approach that concentrates resources on a few identified verticals tied to Netflix IP.
Boss Fight’s co-founder David Rippy and development director David Luehmann each wrote that the time had come for the studio to close, expressing gratitude for the team’s work under the Netflix banner. Their messages followed months of industry turbulence marked by cancellations and staff cuts across multiple publishers, underscoring how even widely downloaded mobile tie-ins can be vulnerable to corporate resets. Netflix declined to comment on the specific reasons for the decision.
The streamer has cycled through several approaches since stepping into games in 2021, including acquisitions, an ill-fated AAA push that was later wound down, and a pivot toward tighter integration between series and interactive projects. Recent remarks from company leadership and product updates suggest the emphasis now is on titles that extend familiar franchises, encourage social play, and can be delivered across devices, particularly living-room screens. In that context, shuttering an internal studio while keeping finished games live fits with a strategy that favors fewer in-house bets and more targeted releases tied to marquee shows.
