More Than 70 Staff Leave Supermassive Games as Layoffs Take Effect

More than 70 people are leaving Supermassive Games, the studio behind Until Dawn, according to Frank Tindle, its IT & Facilities Director, who confirmed his own final day after 16 years at the company in a LinkedIn post on 5 Οκτωβρίου 2026. Those departing span developers, artists, producers, QA, operations and more, Tindle wrote. His post drew 176 reactions and 24 comments.

The departures follow the company’s publication of “A statement from Supermassive Games” on 11 Αυγούστου 2026. The statement ran on the studio’s official X account, timestamped 11:43 GMT that day, where it drew 5,029 likes and 459 retweets. The company also posted a statement under the same title on its official LinkedIn page, where it drew 124 comments. Tindle’s October post establishes that his own role had been placed at risk weeks earlier, and that the wider departures he describes took effect on the same day as his.

“A few weeks ago I posted that my role at Supermassive Games was at risk,” Tindle wrote. “Today it’s official. My last day. Sixteen years.”

Tindle wrote that it was not just him leaving. He praised the departing staff, writing that other studios would be fortunate to hire them, and offered to make introductions to anyone recruiting. He added that what he is proudest of from his time at the studio is the people, past and present.

Tindle’s 16 Years at the Studio

Tindle joined Supermassive in 2010 as the entirety of its IT department, he wrote, and leaves as IT & Facilities Director and a member of the Senior Leadership Team. In between, he wrote, the studio grew from a handful of people to more than 400.

He described building and running much of the studio’s operational backbone, covering technology, security and facilities along with the teams and suppliers behind them. That meant leading a team of 16, with the budget that went with it. The job, he wrote, was making complicated things work so that everyone else could get on with making games, the part of the role he said he loves.

Tindle wrote that he has spent 31 years in games and described the industry as home, while adding that he is open to the right role outside it too. He wrote that he is available for permanent, interim or fractional work, and invited studios and other creative businesses looking for someone to bring order to complicated operations to contact him.

A Second Departure Confirmed the Same Day

Tindle was not the only Supermassive employee to mark an exit publicly on 5 Οκτωβρίου 2026. Tim Browning, who wrote that he joined the studio in Σεπτέμβριος 2022 to recruit, confirmed his own departure in a LinkedIn post the same day.

“Today I say goodbye to Supermassive Games Ltd,” Browning wrote.

Browning wrote that his team hired many people during his time at the studio, launched games and won awards, and that he made friends along the way. He compared his stint to one of the studio’s own stories, complete with twists and jump scares, and wrote that his chapter at Supermassive had come to an end while teasing a next chapter he did not name.

The Studio and Its Recent Games

Supermassive’s most recent release is Directive 8020, listed as out now on the studio’s website on a page carrying the game’s 12 Μαΐου 2026 release date. The studio describes a game in which the crew of the Cassiopeia is hunted by an alien organism capable of mimicking its prey, with player choices, real-time threats and decisions over who to trust at the center. The page directs buyers to the game’s official website at thedarkpictures.com.

The studio’s games catalogue lists Until Dawn (2015) for PlayStation 4; Man of Medan (2019); Little Hope (2020); House of Ashes (2021); The Devil in Me and The Quarry (both 2022); Switchback VR (2023) for PlayStation VR2; The Casting of Frank Stone (2024); Little Nightmares III (2025) across PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC; and Directive 8020 (2026) for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

The studio’s news index records Little Nightmares III winning three Gamescom awards in Αύγουστος 2024, and a Ιούνιος 2025 post announcing the game’s October 10 release date. Its most recent listings show the Directive 8020 launch post under May, followed by the Little Nightmares III downloadable content “The Backstage and The Shores” under June.