The latest Xbox Game Studios release to make its way to the PlayStation 5 is South of Midnight, a beautiful, must-play game from Compulsion Games. Xbox is full steam ahead with its relatively new multi-platform strategy, bringing South of Midnight to PS5 roughly a year after its debut, while PlayStation is doing the exact opposite, reportedly abandoning first-party PC ports.
South of Midnight arrived on PlayStation 5 (and Switch 2) on March 31, 2026, almost a full year after it first released for Xbox and PC. As I wrote in my South of Midnight review, Compulsion Games’ latest “takes you down a crawdad hole through the Southern Gothic subgenre while oozing style.” With incredible animation, music, character writing, storytelling, and exploration, South of Midnight comes highly recommended for those who can now play it on PS5.
South of Midnight Just Released on PlayStation 5
South of Midnight is only Compulsion Games’ third-ever release, following Contrast and We Happy Few. It’s a stunning work of art, even if it has a few drawbacks. You play as Hazel, whose mother was swept away by a flood during a hurricane. It’s a heavily Southern Gothic work, leaning on the subgenre’s mysticism and using the American Deep South’s sordid history to explore themes of trauma, social injustice, and race relations.
South of Midnight‘s presentation is excellent, with characters animated at reduced frames per second to mimic classic stop-motion animation. Its gameplay is split between engaging platforming and environmental puzzling, and unfortunately lacking combat encounters, though the latter is easily overlooked in the face of South of Midnight‘s many merits. It is chiefly an incredibly heartfelt narrative that contextualizes a mother-daughter relationship within both their community and the region’s past. If you’re looking for a concise and captivating narrative game, don’t pass up South of Midnight.
South of Midnight Joins a Stellar Xbox Lineup on PS5
You can add South of Midnight to the list of great games that are losing their Xbox console exclusivity. Xbox’s change in strategy, seemingly spurred by cratering console sales of the Series X and Series S, has been a huge boon for consumers, who can now play a wide slate of compelling titles on more platforms. South of Midnight joins the likes of Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, Gears of War: Reloaded, Pentiment (we love Pentiment here at Screen Rant), Sea of Thieves, and more to be unshackled from exclusive status.
And this has been just the beginning; Forza Horizon 6, Fable, and Halo: Campaign Evolved are all contributing to a big year for Xbox, and will all be platform-agnostic (eventually – Forza‘s PS5 release date isn’t set yet). With the brand seemingly embracing PC even more with Xbox Project Helix, Xbox Game Studios is becoming one of the more notable multi-platform publishers, and it seems like it’s going to continue delivering hits. South of Midnight is just the latest to bridge the gap to PS5, and it’s more than worth your time.
- Released
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April 8, 2025
- ESRB
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rp
- Developer(s)
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Compulsion Games
- Publisher(s)
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Xbox Game Studios
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
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