Layoffs at Supermassive Games; One of Their Games Will Be Delayed!

General news News 07/23/2025

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Supermassive Games has not escaped the almost weekly announcements of layoffs, despite having done so once before.

The last time we heard anything like this from the studio was in February 2024, about a year and a half ago, when a third of the team was laid off due to challenges in the gaming industry. This excuse is so common that Supermassive Games used it again, as stated in their recent announcement on Twitter:

“The gaming industry remains a challenging and ever-evolving environment. As we adapt our team structure to better align with these changes, we’ve made the difficult decision to begin a redundancy consultation process, which we anticipate will result in the loss of up to 36 colleagues. This decision was not taken lightly, and we know this will be an incredibly difficult time for everyone. Our absolute priority will be to offer full support to all those affected.

We remain focused on our upcoming projects and have decided to delay the launch of Directive 8020 to the first half of 2026. The response to the game has been fantastic so far, and this additional time will allow us to deliver the best possible experience for our fans. We’re deeply grateful for the patience and support of our community. There will be no impact on the development of Little Nightmares III,” wrote Supermassive Games.

A statement from Supermassive Games. pic.twitter.com/Vom1CSGYGs

— Supermassive Games (@SuperMGames) July 22, 2025

Directive 8020, announced at Gamescom last year, was originally scheduled for release on October 2. This delay will be between three and nine months, as the new release date has not yet been announced. It was an odd release date anyway because, in the meantime, we learned that Little Nightmares III will be released on October 10. Fortunately, that release date is unaffected by the cutbacks. The studio only mentioned it briefly in the announcement.

The question now is what Directive 8020 will look like after the delay. If the studio still releases an average product, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more layoffs in the second half of 2026.

Source: WCCFTech

Angyal Anikó

Anikó, our news editor and communication manager, is more interested in the business side of the gaming industry. She worked at banks, and she has a vast knowledge of business life. Still, she likes puzzle and story-oriented games, like Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, which is her favourite title. She also played The Sims 3, but after accidentally killing a whole sim family, swore not to play it again. (For our office address, email and phone number check out our IMPRESSUM)