Supermassive Games Lays Off More Than 70 Staff in Its Third Round of Cuts in Three Years

Supermassive Games has confirmed it laid off more than 70 employees this week, the Dark Pictures Anthology and Until Dawn studio’s third round of job cuts in three years. The news lands less than six months after the UK studio released Directive 8020, its first self-published game, to a mixed critical reception.

A Third Round of Cuts in Three Years

Supermassive first warned staff on August 11 that it was beginning a redundancy consultation process that could affect up to 75 of its colleagues, calling the move “a necessary step to help ensure the sustainability of the company.” The cuts that have now gone through follow roughly 90 roles eliminated in February 2024 and another 36 in July 2025, meaning the studio has shed well over 150 jobs across three separate rounds since 2024.

Directive 8020, Supermassive Games’s sci-fi survival horror title, released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in May 2026.

Directive 8020’s Rocky Launch

Directive 8020 launched on May 12 as Supermassive’s first Dark Pictures-adjacent release not published by Bandai Namco, landing to a Metacritic score around 72. The game shipped with only local couch co-op for up to five players, and an online multiplayer mode the studio had promised for this October has yet to materialize. CEO Robert Henrysson also stepped down in late June, about six weeks after launch, saying he wanted to spend time with his family and move into advisory work, with parent company Nordisk Games describing the timing as a natural moment following the game’s release.

Directive 8020 sends a search-and-rescue crew to investigate a crashed colony ship on a hostile alien planet.

Who’s Leaving, and What Comes Next

Among those confirmed laid off is Frank Tindle, Supermassive’s IT and Facilities Director and a member of its senior leadership team for 16 years. The studio hasn’t detailed which departments were hit hardest in this round. Meanwhile, the upcoming Until Dawn sequel, due on PS5 in 2027, has already been handed to PlayStation studio Firesprite rather than developed in-house, leaving open questions about what Supermassive’s next original project will be. The cuts also land amid a broader wave of studio downsizing across the industry this year, from Xbox’s ongoing restructuring to Undead Labs’ own layoffs last month.

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Picture Source: Supermassive Games