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Supermassive Games, the Guildford-based developer behind Until Dawn, The Quarry and the Dark Pictures anthology horror series, has announced job losses “with deep regret”.
The studio confirmed it would shed staff via a statement posted to social media platform X, in which it blamed “significant challenges” facing the games industry to which it was not “immune”.
A Bloomberg report states around 150 people were told their jobs were at risk this morning, with around 90 staff eventually expected to leave the business following a consultation period. Supermassive is believed to currently employ around 350 staff in total.
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“It’s no secret that the games industry is currently facing significant challenges, and unfortunately we aren’t immune to this,” Supermassive Games wrote.
“After much deliberation and with deep regret, we are therefore undertaking a reorganisation of Supermassive Games. As a result, we are entering into a period of consultation, which we anticipate will result in the loss of some of our colleagues.
“This is not a decision that’s been taken lightly, with many efforts made to avoid this outcome,” Supermassive’s statement continued.
“We are all too aware of how unsettling and difficult this process is going to be for all our employees and will be working closely with all those involved to ensure the process is conducted as respectfully and compassionately as possible.
“We’re committed to focusing our efforts on our core strengths and upcoming titles to ensure the continued sustainability of the company.”
Founded in 2008, Supermassive made a name for itself with its cult classic horror title Until Dawn, the teen drama tale starring Hayden Panettiere and Rami Malek which was saved from launch as a PlayStation Move title and found an audience on PS4.
While Sony owned the Until Dawn franchise (and is now developing a remake for PC and PS5), Supermassive continued to focus on the horror genre with its Dark Pictures Anthology series, self-contained horror games bookended by a mysterious curator. The fourth of these, The Devil in Me, launched in 2022. A fifth major entry, a sci-fi game titled Directive 8020 was teased, though its status is currently unknown.
Other upcoming projects from Supermassive Games include a third entry in the Little Nightmares series, and a Dead by Daylight spin-off titled The Casting of Frank Stone. Both were previously announced as launching this year.
Thousands of video games industry workers have been laid off over the past 18 months, with the start to 2024 being no less brutal than last year. Microsoft announced that 1900 staff would be let go across Xbox and Activision Blizzard in January.
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