REACTION - South of Midnight is a sign that Xbox first party is back on track

Long overdue.

By Jonathan Garrett
28/06/23

After what felt like an extended period of PR blunders and a barren release slate, Microsoft have taken some tangible steps toward course correcting their blunders by showing their hand at their recent Showcase. One title that really caught our eye: South of Midnight from Compulsion Games (the team behind the BioShock-esque We Happy Few).

Although their over reliance on “in-engine” footage meant that actual gameplay demoes were relatively scarce, it’s still a decent improvement over the never ending bombardment of CG trailers that have historically accompanied many of their new announcements. The style of the character art, brilliant implementation of music, and the tease of the protagonists abilities were enough for us to raise a very intrigued eyebrow.

There’s clearly a lot we don’t know, but subsequent Xbox Wire blog post confirmation of it being a third person action adventure (something which Xbox first party could do with more of, given Sony’s dominance in this particular genre) was another tick in the win column.