Supermassive Games , the independent UK studio behind Until Dawn , The Quarry , and The Dark Pictures Anthology , has announced another round of layoffs that could affect up to 75 employees . The cuts arrive less than three months after the release of Directive 8020 and represent the studio’s third redundancy process in under three years .

In a statement shared on social media, Supermassive said :

We have made the difficult decision to begin a redundancy consultation process, which we anticipate will result in the loss of up to 75 of our colleagues. This is a necessary step to help ensure the sustainability of the company. We know this will be an incredibly difficult time for everyone, and our priority throughout the process will be to provide support to all those impacted.

The announcement does not directly blame Directive 8020 for the layoffs, and the exact financial performance of the sci-fi horror game has not been disclosed. However, the timing places the latest cuts against a difficult period for Supermassive , with the studio having already reduced its workforce twice since early 2024.

Directive 8020 was originally scheduled to launch on October 2, 2025 , but Supermassive delayed the game to the first half of 2026 while announcing that up to 36 employees would be let go. At the time, the developer said it was adapting its team structure to a challenging market and needed additional time to deliver the best possible experience.

The game eventually launched on May 12, 2026 , for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X. It is the first Dark Pictures entry to move the anthology’s horror formula into science fiction, placing players aboard the colony ship Cassiopeia after it crashes on the distant planet Tau Ceti f.

The concept offered Supermassive an opportunity to expand beyond its established haunted houses and isolated rural settings. Instead of confronting ghosts, cultists, or supernatural killers, players must contend with an alien threat and the possibility that any crew member could be compromised, in a deliberate inspiration from John Carpenter's The Thing .

That ambition, however, has failed to translate into a clear breakout . Critics have generally responded to the game more favorably than players, but reviews have still been mixed. The title sits around the low-70s on critic aggregators (and our own Kai Tatsumoto also rated it 7 out of 10 ), while Steam user sentiment has remained mixed, with roughly 63% positive reviews in the available data.

The clearest public performance signal comes from Steam. Directive 8020 reached an all-time peak of 3,072 concurrent players on its May 12 launch day, according to SteamDB. The game later fell to a few hundred concurrent players in the available snapshots, indicating a relatively limited PC audience after launch.

Of course, that's not the complete picture of sales. Nevertheless, the combination of modest PC engagement, mixed player reception, and the lack of a publicly announced sales milestone makes it difficult to describe the game as a major commercial success . The title's $49.99 price point and eventual discounts could help it develop a longer sales tail, but the early indicators are not particularly strong.

The latest layoffs also follow the departure of Supermassive CEO Pete Samuels , who stepped down in June, roughly six weeks after the launch of Directive 8020 . Samuels said he had been honored to guide the studio through a period of intense change, but his exit adds to the sense that Supermassive is in the middle of a significant internal transition.

The developer previously cut roughly 90 jobs in February 2024 , followed by the aforementioned redundancy process affecting up to 36 employees in July 2025. The latest possible reduction of 75 positions would make this the studio’s third round of layoffs in less than three years.

That pattern reflects the broader instability affecting the games industry, but Supermassive's recent problems also appear tied to the risks of its own production model . The studio has built its identity around cinematic, choice-driven experiences that require substantial (and expensive) casts, performance capture, detailed environments, branching content, and lengthy development timelines. Those games can be quite costly to produce, while their sales depend heavily on launch visibility and word of mouth.

The studio also worked on Little Nightmares III for Bandai Namco , which was a bit of a departure from their usual style, but even that game failed to gain a positive reception. Long story short, Supermassive Games needs a reset.

About the author : With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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