Well, this news sucks.
Supermassive Games, the developer best known for its story-driven games like Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology series, announced it was downsizing its workforce.
In a statement, the studio says it is making the move due to the ongoing “challenging ” state of the video games industry.
The studio also states that it will have to adjust its team structure, resulting in approximately 36 employees losing their jobs.
It’s unknown how many people are currently employed at Supermassive, but just last year the studio cut around 90 jobs. At the time, Bloomberg estimated that the UK-based studio had around 300 employees.
“This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be an incredibly difficult time for everyone,” Supermassive Games said in a shared today. “Our absolute priority will be to offer full support to all those affected.”
Directive: 8020 Gets Delayed Until 2026
In further unfortunate news, the new layoffs will impact the release of Directive: 8020, the fifth entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology series, a sci-fi horror adventure game, which is now scheduled for the first half of 2026 to “deliver the very best experience for our fans.”
Following our preview of the game at Summer Game Fest, we wrote, “Supermassive Games has been looking to strike lightning in a bottle again, like it did with Until Dawn, with its Dark Pictures series. Unfortunately, the four titles in the game series have been rather pedestrian. However, with the studio taking its time with Directive 8020, it appears to be a return to form for the game studio.”
It appears that they will be taking even more time with the game to ensure it delivers something special with Directive 8020.
The studio is also working on Little Nightmares II and ensures that the game will still hit its October 10 release date.
Delays and layoffs have become the norm in the gaming industry, unfortunately.
