Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games has announced another round of layoffs in a new statement posted to social media. In this statement, the studio outlines the current troubles within the gaming industry and highlights some of the consequences of these upcoming layoffs for the company. One of these consequences is for their upcoming Directive 8020 project, which is now projected to be released during the “first half” of 2026, instead of 2025 as initially announced. This latest news adds to a growing chorus of industry layoffs, giving gamers more pause about the rapidly shifting gaming landscape.
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Supermassive Games now anticipates that an additional 36 employees will be laid off as part of a “redundancy consultation process.” Earlier this year, Jason Schreier from Bloomberg reported that the studio was laying off 90 employees or nearly 30% of the entire studio’s workforce. A very similar-looking statement was released in February, using much of the same phrasing as the one now.
The February statement and this latest one, published Tuesday, noted that the decision was not “taken lightly” and attributed the layoffs to challenges in the gaming industry and the studio’s reorganization efforts. However, what is new about the latest Supermassive Games statement is that Directive 8020 is now being affected.
“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,” said the Supermassive Games statement. “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.”
Directive 8020 was announced as a stand-alone survival game, slated for release in 2025 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam. Similar to the studio’s previous titles, such as Until Dawn and The Quarry, players in Directive 8020 shift perspectives to different protagonists while overcoming danger. Their choices will carry permanent weight, altering the narrative’s outcome and the fates of various characters.
The games are known for having intense drama and interactive storytelling, but lacking much gameplay interaction outside of Quick Time Events and dialogue choices. In recent years, the studio has shifted its focus from its breakout standalone titles to a series of connected games called The Dark Pictures Anthology, which has divided some fans. The delay of Directive 8020, the fifth installment in the Dark Pictures series, has already stoked some frustration among gamers online.
“Bruh… no way they’re going from releasing Dark Pictures games every year to every 4 years,” wrote X user Beaver Edits in response to the statement. “This game better be good because I can’t imagine having to wait until 2030 for the next one.”
In a partnership with Bandai Namco, Supermassive Games has also been focused on an upcoming puzzle-platform horror game, Little Nightmares III, which is set to release on October 9th. Luckily, according to this recent announcement, none of the layoffs will affect the development of Little Nightmares III. The game had previously been delayed from a 2024 release date to this year.
However, as these additional layoffs have occurred within the same year for Supermassive Games, it’s challenging to predict what the future holds for the studio and other upcoming projects. Could fans be kept waiting even longer as industry challenges continue to pile up for studios like Supermassive Games?
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