Supermassive Games released a statement in which it confirmed that the studio has laid off 36 people, cuts that it says were made for the studio to "adapt our team structure to better align" with the changes and challenges of the video game industry. The studio also confirmed that Directive 8020, which was due to launch this October, has been delayed into 2026.
The statement was published to the studio's official X account, where it writes "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."
Directive 8020, which was announced last year at Gamescom 2024, and was supposed to be out this coming October 2, 2025, will now release sometime in "the first half of 2026." Supermassive adds "the response to the game so far has been fantastic, and this additional time will help us deliver the very best experience for our fans. We're deeply grateful for the patience and support of our community."
Directive 8020 wasn't the only game Supermassive had launching in October of this year though, with the other being Little Nightmares III, which is due out on October 10, 2025, and only gets a short mention at the end of the statement, where Supermassive claims that these layoffs have "no impact on the development of Little Nightmares III."
In February 2024, Supermassive Games laid off a third of its staff, once again citing challenges in the changing video game industry.
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