Spry Fox, the studio behind cozy games like Cozy Grove (the clue’s in the name, I suppose) and Spirit Crossing, has been sold back to its original owners by now-former parent company Netflix.
According to a report by Game File, the sale of Spry Fox is part of an ongoing effort on Netflix’s part to reconfigure and reassess its gaming division, an operation that has already seen Squid Game: Unleashed‘s Boss Fight Entertainment closed down, along with a star-studded internal studio full of industry veterans.
Unlike Boss Fight and the mooted Team Blue, however, Spry Fox hasn’t been closed; rather, it’s been sold back to Daniel Cook and David Edery, and will remain operational as an independent studio, according to Game File’s report.
Edery told Game File that his studio is “grateful” for its time under the auspices of Netflix, which will still publish Spirit Crossing on mobile. The studio will, however, be free to ask other publishers to take the game on for other platforms, which Edery says is “truly the best thing” for the project.
Netflix isn’t the only streaming giant to be taking a long, hard look at its role in the gaming industry. Back in October, Amazon announced a major overhaul to its Luna streaming service, which involved a refocusing on party games and smartphone-based play.
The retail giant also revealed that it would end development on MMORPG New World, with several staffers in Amazon’s gaming division also losing their jobs as a result of that decision.
Spry Fox’s split from Netflix doesn’t seem to have affected the studio’s plans in the near term; Spirit Crossing is still in development, and Cozy Grove remains available across PC and consoles, with versions of Spirit Crossing for those platforms also seemingly in the works. Stay tuned for more on this.
