Today, we made an appearance at the 2025 Xbox Developer_Direct, where members of our studio team shared more about the gameplay, look, and feel of South of Midnight. We also released our brand-new story trailer, which expands on the narrative of South of Midnight while including all-new gameplay, characters, and mythical creatures from the game:
In this trailer, our heroine Hazel and her mother are preparing for the impending hurricane. The storm proves massive, causing catastrophic flooding-and causing their own home to be swept down river with her mother in it. Its aftermath shows the fictional town of Prospero, located in the southern United States, eerily calm while irrevocably changed from the hurricane’s destruction. Hazel then undertakes a journey in search of her mother, while finding out more about herself and her family’s lineage and encountering an assortment of new creatures and magical phenomena.
South of Midnight will be available on April 8, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox App for Windows PC, Steam and cloud, and can be played day one with Game Pass. And if you want to dive into the
macabre and fantastical world of South of Midnight a tad bit early, you can purchase the Premium Edition and play up to 5 days early, along with access to digital extras (only available in English):
- Artbook: Organized by the game's story chapters, The Art of South of Midnight includes never-before-seen character art, environmental art, iconography, artist commentary, and more.
- Original Soundtrack: Inspired by the haunting allure of a Southern gothic Deep South, the South of Midnight original soundtrack blends traditional Southern-style music with a dark, otherworldly essence. With visionary composer Olivier Deriviere at its helm, the dynamic soundtrack features performances by Southern artists and incorporates traditional instruments to create a diegetic musical narrative that evolves in response to the player's actions and environment. From soulful blues to lively honky-tonk, each song invokes the region's rich cultural history, immersing players in an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere where reality and myth collide.
- Digital Comic Book: We've teamed up with award-winning comic book artist and writer Rob Guillory to create The Boo Hag, a digital comic book set in the South of Midnight universe. Presented in full color, The Boo Hag explores protagonist Hazel's encounter with an infamous mythical creature from Deep South mythos, giving readers the chance to dive even deeper into the game's fantastical and folkloric world.
- Music Video: Feel the magic of South of Midnight's lyrically driven narrative music with Songs & Tales From South of Midnight, a visual compilation featuring three selected songs from the South of Midnight OST. This field recording-style music video showcases and celebrates the diverse range of Southern musical genres that define South of Midnight's soundtrack, all while telling a cohesive story through delightfully haunting visuals.
- Director’s Cut Documentary: Weaving Hazel's Journey: A South of Midnight Documentary (Director's Cut) offers fans an extended look at the development of our third-person action-adventure South of Midnight. This director's cut explores in even greater detail the team's world-building process and inspirations drawn from Deep South folktales, featuring exclusive interviews and commentary from various Compulsion Games developers across multiple disciplines, including gameplay, narrative, art, music, and more.
We’re excited to share that soon, press and creators from around the world will be receiving a pre-release build of South of Midnight in order to share their first previews impressions publicly. We’ll also be sharing a special preview ourselves on the Compulsion Games and Xbox social channels. Stay tuned for more on Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, when our global preview embargo lifts!
- The Compulsion Dev Team