Spry Fox, the game studio known for their cozy, original games, is returning back to the hands of their original creators after being bought out by Netflix. Spry Fox was originally bought out by Netflix in 2022 in an initiative of Netflix housing and creating their own games: “Their unique approach to game development and success with titles like Triple Town, Alphabear and Cozy Grove will help accelerate our creative development in another beloved genre and add to the growing variety of Netflix’s games catalog that will have something for everyone.”
In an article by GameFile, it details that Spry Fox is returning to the original creators as response of Netflix closing down multiple gaming studios: Spry Fox’s fate appears to be the result of similar forces that led to last year’s shutdown of Netflix’s Team Blue, a California based group composed of Halo, Call of Duty and God of War veterans who’d been brought together by Netflix to make a big-budget multi-platform game.” While Netflix quickly acquired multiple gaming studios in the last few years, alongside heavy hitters in the gaming world like Chacko Sonny and Joseph Staten, the ambition of their quest quickly fizzled out
Although the priorities of Netflix are changing, Spry Fox will be continuing development of their latest title, the multi-player game Spirit Crossing, as Netflix will still be publishing the game on mobile“Spirit Crossing was built to connect the world, bring people together and inspire kindness, so being able to bring the game to as many players, across different platforms, is truly the best thing for the game.” There have been worry about Spry Fox’s ability to generate revenue after returning back from Netflix as their funding for the game development would have to be carefully budgeted or risk ending the game development altogether. With the recent downsizing of staff over at Spry Fox, many are looking closely at the game studio for the next steps post-Netflix.