Supermassive Games, best known for developing the likes of Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology, have announced they’ve begun the consultation process for a round of redundancies that’ll affect “up to 36” staff. As part of this, sci-fi horror game Directive 8020 has had its release delayed to early next year.
Meanwhile, Supermassive have confirmed that the development of puzzler Little Nightmares 3 hasn’t been affected by these job cuts, with that game still being on track to come out October 10th.
In a statement posted to social media, the studio blamed these layoffs on a need to “better align” with the games industry being “a challenging and ever-evolving environment”, whatever that means.
“This decision was not taken lightly, and we know this will be an incredibly difficult time for everyone. Our absolute priority will be to offer full support to all those affected,” Supermassive wrote, “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.”
This latest round at layoffs follow the studio reportedly laying off around 90 workers in February 2024, citing similar reasoning to that which they’ve employed here in a social post that looked pretty similar too.
Directive 8020, a standalone entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, was first leaked back in 2022. Supermassive pencilled in a 2025 release for it as part of a proper announcement last summer, which showed off a game the very much looked like it’d be putting the phrase ‘in space, no one can hear you scream’ to the test. It’s all about a colony ship called Cassiopeia crash landing on a planet and its crew then having further bad times as they’re hunted down by an alien organism in true Xenomorphy fashion.
“Earth is dying and humanity is running out of time,” reads the first line of Directive 8020’s blurb, which I wish didn’t vaguely feel like it unintentionally reflects the mood in the games industry right now.
