Mere months after its latest release, Directive 8020, indie studio, Supermassive Games, has announced that it is conducting yet another round of layoffs—the third in just over a year. In a statement on social media, Supermassive Games confirmed that it will be laying off “up to 75” employees.
The studio calls the layoffs “a necessary step to help ensure the sustainability of the company,” and says that it will prioritize supporting employees affected by the layoffs. Supermassive is known for its work on Until Dawn, The Quarry, and Little Nightmares III. Its most recent launch, from May 2026, Directive 8020, was delayed due to a previous round of layoffs in July 2025, and launched to Mixed reviews on Steam.
Directive 8020 ended up peaking at just over 3,000 concurrent players on Steam, which isn’t entirely unexpected for the survival horror indie niche, but it likely hasn’t helped the studio’s financials much. For comparison. Little Nightmares III, although expected from an established franchise, had much higher peak player counts of over 22,000.
The studio’s full statement reads:
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 this process will be to provide support to all those impacted.