Supermassive Games has begun a redundancy consultation that could affect up to 75 staff, the Guildford-based narrative-horror studio confirmed this week, becoming the latest UK developer to announce cuts during the sector's multi-year post-pandemic contraction.

A formal consultation period is now underway under UK redundancy rules, which require a minimum 30-day notification window for proposed group redundancies of 20 or more employees at a single establishment.

What does Supermassive actually make?

The studio's catalogue centres on cinematic horror with branching-narrative mechanics, choice-driven storytelling and motion-capture-driven performances. Flagship releases include the PlayStation 4 exclusive Until Dawn (2015), the multi-season The Dark Pictures Anthology spanning Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes and The Devil in Me, and 2022's The Quarry, a summer-camp horror game published by 2K.

Sony Interactive Entertainment extended its relationship with the studio in 2020, and Supermassive followed with PS VR2 launch-window title The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR (2023). The studio has also taken on smaller contracted projects and provided support work on selected third-party productions.

Who owns Supermassive, and what is the parent context?

Supermassive sits within Nordisk Games, the Copenhagen-headquartered investment and publishing operation that took a majority stake in the studio in August 2021. Nordisk Games itself operates inside the wider Embracer Group structure, the Swedish holding company that pursued an aggressive M&A strategy through 2020-2022 before announcing a major restructuring programme in mid-2023.

That restructuring followed a collapsed $2 billion investment agreement and has produced multiple studio closures, sizeable headcount reductions and divestments across Embracer's portfolio over the past 18 months. The group moved into a three-way corporate reorganisation during 2024, a structural shift that has reshaped where Nordisk Games and its subsidiaries now sit.

How significant is this round?

A redundancy round touching up to 75 roles represents a substantial share of Supermassive's pre-consultation headcount, which industry estimates placed in the low hundreds. Cuts at this scale typically span production support, QA, design and engineering functions once active projects pass defined milestone gates.

The studio's pipeline includes continuing Dark Pictures instalments, contracted external work and platform-tied projects. The mix of functions affected, and any production changes announced alongside the final outcome, will determine how visible the impact becomes externally.

Where does this fit in the wider UK picture?

Supermassive's announcement extends a wave that has touched narrative developers, work-for-hire studios and AAA teams across the UK throughout 2024. Trade body Ukie's most recent industry census recorded a contraction in domestic development employment, reversing a decade of growth that had roughly doubled the country's developer headcount between 2014 and 2022.

The current cycle has produced both outright studio closures and material headcount reductions, with London, Guildford, Dundee and Edinburgh among the hubs affected. Analysts tracking consolidation have framed the present downturn as the deepest sustained contraction UK development has experienced since the post-2008 period.

What is worth watching next?

The consultation outcome — final redundancy figure, affected functions and any project cancellations announced in parallel — will set the immediate signal heading into year-end. Subsequent quarterly disclosures from parent entities and any conditional commentary on in-flight projects will offer the next data points worth monitoring.