Supermassive Games, the developer behind horror-themed narrative games Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology, has announced it will be laying off up to 36 staff members in more redundancies across 2025. This will add to the over 6,000 job losses that have already occurred in 2025, as well as the 17,000 jobs that were lost in 2024.
In a statement issued by the studio via their social media account, Supermassive also confirmed that they would be delaying their next title in The Dark Pictures Anthology, Directive 8020, which they now aim to have out in “the first half of 2026”. Supermassive stated it had been forced to adapt the team structure to “better align” with “a challenging and ever-evolving environment” of the video game industry. These job cuts follow a similar round of redundancies the company made back in March of 2024, in which Supermassive removed around 90 jobs, releasing a similarly worded statement at the time.
Supermassive had previously stated they had around 350 employees as of 2023, meaning that over the past 18 months, around one-third of the studio has been laid off in total. In their statement, Supermassive stated that:
We remain focused on our upcoming projects and have made the decision to move the launch of Directive 8020 to the first half of 2026. The response to the game so far has been fantastic, and this additional time will help us deliver the very best experience for our fans. We’re deeply grateful for the patience and support of our community.
The Dark Picture Anthology was initially released in 2019, with the nautical-themed horror title Man of Medan. While not directly related to their breakout success game, Until Dawn, the titles feature multiple similarities such as their focus on tight stories and quick time action sequences, as well as player choice to see who inevitably makes it out alive in the cast of expendable horror fodder. The Dark Picture series, in particular, differed in that it featured small games that still had the visual polish of a cinematic game, but featured multiple entries over the next few years. These include Little Hope, House of Ashes, and the last title released in the series thus far, The Devil in Me, which was released in 2022. It appears that in the 3 years between releases, Directive 8020 has become a more standalone title.
In addition to Directive 8020, Supermassive is also developing the long-awaited next entry in the Little Nightmares series, Little Nightmares 3. This title was also delayed slightly out of its initial window and is now slated to launch on October 10th.
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