Until Dawn Studio Supermassive Games Cuts Up to 75 Jobs

Supermassive Games, the Guildford studio behind Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology, said on August 11, 2026 that it has begun a redundancy consultation process expected to cut up to 75 jobs, describing the move as necessary to keep the company sustainable.

The announcement came in a brief statement posted to the studio’s X account, which gave no breakdown by team and named no projects affected.

“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,” the statement reads. “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.”

Supermassive Games’ Second Announced Redundancy Consultation Since July 2025

The August 2026 consultation is the second redundancy process the studio has announced since July 2025. In a July 2025 statement, the studio opened a consultation anticipating the loss of up to 36 colleagues, and in the same announcement pushed Directive 8020 from its planned October 2025 release into the first half of 2026.

Directive 8020 eventually shipped in May 2026 to a mixed critical reception, landing at a 72 on Metacritic. It was the fifth entry in the Dark Pictures series and the first Supermassive self-published; the four earlier games were published by Bandai Namco. During the delay period, the studio also shipped Little Nightmares III, which the July 2025 statement confirmed was unaffected by that round’s cuts. Our Directive 8020 guide tracks the game from its announcement through its eventual launch.

Six weeks after Directive 8020’s release, chief executive Robert Henrysson departed. Henrysson, previously chairman of Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios from 2017 to 2024, had taken the Supermassive CEO role in January 2024. In a LinkedIn post announcing his exit at the end of June 2026, he said he was leaving parent company Nordisk Games entirely to spend the summer with his family and give more attention to his own investments. His tenure covered the releases of The Casting of Frank Stone, Little Nightmares III and Directive 8020.

From PlayStation Partner to Independent Publisher

The cuts land on a studio whose business model has shifted considerably in two years. Supermassive built its name on Until Dawn, the 2015 PlayStation horror title that spawned a 2025 screen adaptation, followed by a run of PlayStation VR projects and the Bandai Namco-published Dark Pictures games. The pivot to self-publishing with Directive 8020 put the sales performance of a single title directly on the studio’s own books, with no platform holder or publishing partner absorbing the gap between development cost and a 72-rated reception.

The studio’s own website describes it as a BAFTA-winning developer best known for Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures Anthology and The Quarry. For players, the catalogue remains intact — our Until Dawn 2 rundown covers where the series’ next chapter stands.

What the Consultation Process Involves

A redundancy consultation is the formal process UK employment law requires before dismissals take effect: affected employees are informed their roles are at risk, consulted on alternatives, and only then confirmed as redundant. The “up to 75” figure in the August statement is the ceiling of that process, not a confirmed headcount, and the July 2025 round used identical language for a consultation that ultimately cut around 36 roles. The statement gives no timeline for when the process concludes.

Supermassive sits within Nordisk Games, the Copenhagen-based group that has owned the studio outright since 2022, and the statement makes no mention of any change to that ownership or to projects in development. The next dated observables are the close of the consultation itself and any confirmation of the final number of roles lost.