Video Games

Until Dawn developer Supermassive plans to lay off around 90 workers

British studio joins the cost-cutting frenzy

Marco Wutz

Until Dawn developer Supermassive plans to lay off around 90 workers
Until Dawn developer Supermassive plans to lay off around 90 workers /

Supermassive Games, the developer behind titles like Until Dawn and The Quarry, announced internally that it would lay off around 90 employees, as reported by Bloomberg. 150 workers in total have been informed that they are at risk of redundancy. In 2022, the company employed around 350 workers according to its own website, so 90 people being laid off would represent roughly 25% of the workforce.

A statement sent to Bloomberg by the studio confirmed plans of a reorganization that “will result in the loss of some of our colleagues.” Echoing many recent statements given after layoffs in the gaming industry, Supermassive wants to focus its efforts on its core strengths to sustain itself in the future.

Supermassive Games logo on white background.
Horror game developer Supermassive Games is laying off around 90 workers / Supermassive Games

Founded in 2008, Supermassive Games began its life by making DLC for LittleBigPlanet and a few smaller titles published by Sony before moving on to larger projects. It eventually specialized in horror games, landing a critical hit with Until Dawn in 2015, which it followed up with entries into The Dark Pictures Anthology for Bandai Namco and The Quarry for 2K Games.

It has two games scheduled for release in 2024: Little Nightmares 3 with Bandai Namco and The Casting of Frank Stone with Behaviour Interactive. Another part of The Dark Pictures Anthology has been announced, but does not have a release date yet.

Supermassive’s layoffs are part of a larger industry effort to cut costs that’s been going on at least since 2023 with big players like Embracer, Amazon, Riot Games, and Microsoft all shedding weight. Smaller studios like Supermassive and ZA/UM add to the woes.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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