South of Midnight is an upcoming action-adventure title coming exclusively to the Xbox Series X|S and PC. The game is under development by Compulsion Games and features elements of magic and a gorgeous art design style, as evident from trailers.
The game is set in the Deep South region of the United States and focuses on the protagonist’s journey with the mystical arts. The game was announced six months earlier, and since then, an announcement trailer and a cinematic trailer have been released, with no update on the release yet. However, a post from a gaming content creator on Twitter could reveal some new information about the game shortly.
The Host of the XNC Podcast Shares Some Info on South of Midnight
The mention of the title was made when a Twitter user and gaming content creator, Middleagegameguy(MAGG), posted this on his X/Twitter account:
I can assure you that what Compulsion Games is making with South of Midnight is going to be something very special. Big news on the way
The last sentence assures readers that some new information regarding the title will be out for fans who have been waiting for it for quite some time since the game’s announcement trailer dropped. The trailer shows a mystical creature that Hazel, the game’s protagonist, referred to as ‘Shakin’ Bones‘ in the announcement trailer.
While the footage is admittedly from the game’s engine and not real-time gameplay, it looks impressive. The game’s product page on Steam offers the following synopsis:
Explore the mythos and confront mysterious creatures of the Deep South in this modern folktale while learning to weave an ancient power to surmount obstacles and face the pain haunting your hometown.
In the trailer, Hazel seems to be searching for a monster, so she ends up at Shakin’ Bones’s whereabouts in the trailer. This suggests that there may be an element of monster hunting or taming fantasy creatures in the title akin to the Monster Hunter and Wild Hearts. This could make for an even more exciting setting.
The cinematic for the game also seems to be using stop-motion animation, making it look unique for the time. The voice acting for the title also seems to be on point. Unsurprisingly, the trailer won the Best Audio/Visual award at the Clio Entertainment Awards 2023.
As mentioned, the release date is unknown; not even a release window is known yet. However, a Twitter post from a user named Timur222 shared a snapshot from an individual named Brad Hilderbrand.
The individual is a Senior Public Relations Manager at Microsoft. The experience entry on LinkedIn for the individual mentions his work on other Xbox Game Studios titles with their release in parenthesis. Similarly, South of Midnight is mentioned with the year 2024 in parenthesis, indicating that the game may target a release window of 2024 internally.
Since the next year is almost here and PR and marketing for a title ideally start a year from its release, we could be in for an update from Compulsion Games on the studio. It is also worth noting that after the Tweet, the release dates from South of Midnight and Towerborne, another upcoming Xbox exclusive, were removed from Hilderbrand’s experience entry. This could be because it was spotted and was rectified instantly for apparent reasons.
While it is unknown if the year of release was changed for a foreseeable delay or confidentiality purposes, signs point to the game receiving some update in the form of a trailer, teaser, gameplay footage, or a press release to announce the release timeline.
The game’s studio recently announced they had reached 100 employees on the popular professional connection platform Linked. The studio began in 2009 and joined the Xbox Game Studios lineup in 2018 when it only had one-third of the headcount in terms of the workforce. It is highly possible that the entire team would be working on the South of Midnight who were currently working on the South of Midnight currently since no other projects from the studio are known.
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
