Supermassive Games Announces Layoffs for Third Consecutive Year
The layoffs mark a third consecutive year of reductions at Supermassive Games, and its first self-published title, Directive 8020, appears to be struggling in reviews and sales, raising questions about the studio's future direction.
Reporting from 2 sources: Denfaminicogamer, Automaton.
Supermassive Games announced on August 11 it will begin a consultation process for staff reductions, with up to 75 employees affected. The studio has about 170 staff, meaning over 40% could be cut. This follows layoffs of about 90 people in 2024 and 36 in 2025. The studio's first self-published title, Directive 8020, has a Mixed rating on Steam.
Supermassive Games, the UK studio behind Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures series, announced on August 11 that it will begin a consultation process for staff reductions, with up to 75 employees expected to be affected. The studio's careers page lists about 170 employees, suggesting over 40% of staff could be reduced.
This is the third consecutive year of layoffs. In 2024, the studio cut about 90 people, roughly 30% of its workforce at the time, and in 2025, 36 staff members were laid off. The studio recently developed Little Nightmares 3 for Bandai Namco Entertainment, released in October 2025.
Its first self-published title, Directive 8020, launched on May 12 after a delay. As of writing, the game holds a Mixed rating on Steam, with 63% positive reviews out of 1,300 user reviews, and a peak concurrent player count of 3,072, the weakest launch among the studio's recent games. Sales figures have not been disclosed.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.