Supermassive Games, Makers of Until Dawn, Announce Mass Layoffs to Keep Afloat
The British studio said the cuts are needed to ensure sustainability after Directive 8020 drew mixed reviews and a Mixed Steam rating from 1,300 users.
- On Tuesday, The British developer Supermassive Games announced a redundancy consultation process that could result in the loss of up to 75 jobs. The company stated this is a "necessary step" to "ensure the sustainability of the company."
- This marks Supermassive's third round of layoffs in two and a half years, following reductions of around 90 workers in February 2024 and approximately 35 in July 2025. The developer had 172 employees at year-end 2025.
- Recent title Directive, released in May on PS5 and Xbox Series, received mixed reviews and garnered 1,300 ratings on Steam. Supermassive previously achieved success with The Dark Pictures Anthology and Until Dawn.
- Former CEO Robert Henrysson stepped down in June following Directive's release. Separately, Supermassive is not involved in a sequel to Until Dawn, which publisher Sony studio Firesprite is developing.
- These cuts reflect broader instability across the video game industry, which has faced a long string of restructuring efforts. It remains unclear how Supermassive's redundancies will impact future projects or the studio's development focus.
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36 Articles
‘Directive 8020’ Developer Supermassive Games to Lay off up to 75 Employees
Supermassive Games has announced that they will be undergoing a “redundancy consultation process”, which will involve the Directive 8020 developer laying off up to 75 employees. This comes after the company’s former CEO Robert Henrysson stepped down back in June. On X, the developer released the following statement: “We have made the difficult decision to begin a redundancy consultation process, which we anticipate will result in the loss of up …
Dark Pictures and Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games to undergo a huge layoff following mixed reception to its latest game
After Directive 8020, Supermassive Games’ latest title, failed to captivate a broader audience and wasn’t so warmly welcomed by fans, the company has decided to lay off some 75 staff members. This is supposed to ensure its stability in the long run, though I wager it won’t go over well with its community. This was confirmed by Supermassive Games today via X. In the post, the company said it is working on “redundancy consultation,” which is going…
Supermassive Games, makers of Until Dawn, announce mass layoffs to keep afloat
Supermassive Games, the video game development studio behind titles like Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology has announced mass layoffs impacting around 75 employees. The announcement – which came via an early morning social media post – marks the third round of layoffs from the studio is as many years. Following the tepid critical and player response to Supermassive’s most recent title, Directive 8020, the layoffs aren’t ent…
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