Until Dawn, Dark Pictures Developer Hit With Layoffs

Highlights

• Supermassive Games, known for horror games like Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology, is laying off employees.
• The studio didn’t say how many employees are being laid off, but reports claim that about 90 will lose their jobs.
• It’s unclear if these layoffs will affect Supermassive’s upcoming projects, like the remaster of Until Dawn or Little Nightmares 3.

Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games has recently announced layoffs. Supermassive Games is known for making horror games with impactful choices, and it’s the latest company affected by one of the worst recent trends in the gaming industry.

Supermassive Games was founded back in 2008, and it initially served as one of Sony’s second-party developers, working on games such as LittleBigPlanet, Sackboy’s Prehistoric Moves, and Killzone HD. The studio rose in prominence in 2015 with Until Dawn, a horror game with a big emphasis on choice. Following that, the company continued to create horror games in the same style with the Dark Pictures Anthology series, and the recent The Quarry.

Now, Supermassive Games has officially announced the layoffs of an undisclosed number of employees after a “period of consultation.” According to the developer, this decision was made with “deep regret,” and there were efforts to avoid this outcome, but ultimately Supermassive Games was not immune to the wave of layoffs in the gaming industry that started last year. While the number of employees who will be laid off was not disclosed by Supermassive Games, Bloomberg reported that around 150 people in the studio were warned their jobs were at risk, with expectations of around 90 people being laid off after the consultation period.

This unfortunate announcement comes on the heels of an exciting time for Supermassive Games’ fans, as Until Dawn has recently been confirmed for PC and PS5. This new version does not have an official release date yet, but it has already been revealed that it will bring better graphics and an improved experience. Apart from this project, Supermassive Games is also working on Little Nightmares 3, and potentially more games in the Dark Pictures brand. It’s unclear how and whether these projects will be affected by the upcoming layoffs.

How Many Employees Were Laid Off From Supermassive Games?

• The numbers are not officially confirmed. Supermassive Games is reported to be laying off “around 90 employees.”

This recently announced layoff is part of an unfortunate trend which started in 2023 and has been ramping up in 2024. 2023 saw over 10,000 workers losing their jobs at game studios. During January 2024 alone, however, over 6,000 people were laid off. Most of these losses come from major studios, such as when Microsoft announced major layoffs of around 1,900 people. Other studios such as Unity decided to cut around 25% of its entire staff, affecting 1,800 people, and Riot Games laid off around 530 employees, for example. There were also many examples of small companies reducing their workforce, too, including Bossa Studios, Lost Boys Interactive, Pixelberry Studios, and others.