Supermassive Games lays off more than 70 people in its third round in three years

The Until Dawn studio confirmed the cuts on Monday, days after Directive 8020 underperformed and months after warning about a redundancy consultation.

Supermassive Games confirmed on Monday that more than 70 employees have been let go, with cuts hitting development, art, production, QA, operations and even senior leadership at the British studio. The move closes out a process that had been looming since August, when the company warned a redundancy consultation could cost up to 75 jobs.

Back then, the studio said the decision was 'a necessary step to help ensure the sustainability of the company.' Almost two months later, the final number landed right near that ceiling, which says the internal situation was worse than a routine trim.

One name that surfaced on social media after the cuts was Frank Tindle, the IT and Facilities Director who spent 16 years at the company. He posted on LinkedIn: 'Any studio would be lucky to have them. If you're hiring, DM me and I'll make the introduction,' a reminder that this round hit people who literally helped build the place.

Supermassive grew from a handful of staff in 2010 to more than 400 people at its peak, but this is the third layoff round in three years. There's a pattern here: betting everything on mid-budget narrative games like Until Dawn and The Quarry just isn't covering a payroll that size anymore.

The timing doesn't help the story either. The studio's most recent release, Directive 8020, launched in 2026 to mixed reviews on Steam and shipped without online co-op, a feature that only arrived via patch almost five months later, in October of all months. For a co-op horror studio, launching without co-op is rough.

There's also a detail that should bother anyone following the studio's biggest franchise: the Until Dawn sequel, due in 2027, isn't being made by Supermassive itself. It's outsourced to Firesprite, another PlayStation-owned studio. In practice that changes little for the player picking up the final game, but it's a pretty loud signal that the original studio may not have the capacity, or the internal priority, to steer its own flagship anymore.

Supermassive isn't alone in this wave. Ninja Theory also confirmed it's facing closure and layoffs in the past few days, part of a broader cycle of cuts that's become routine across the industry. For anyone who played Until Dawn back in 2015 and watched Supermassive become shorthand for quality narrative games, it's rough seeing this launch-then-cut loop turn into the norm instead of the exception.