Supermassive Games has announced a third round of layoffs, reducing the Until Dawn and The Quarry developer to roughly a quarter of the headcount it reported in 2023.

The Guildford-based studio, owned by Nordisk Film Games since 2022, has now cut staff three times in roughly two years. The successive rounds of reductions have compounded: the studio that entered 2023 with a workforce of around 200 people now employs a fraction of that number, according to the announcement reported by Tech Times.

Supermassive built its reputation on cinematic, choice-driven horror. Until Dawn, released for PlayStation in 2015, became a breakout success and spawned a franchise approach built on branching narratives, quick-time-driven survival mechanics and the studio's proprietary branch-tracking systems that record player decisions across playthroughs. The Dark Pictures Anthology extended that formula across multiple shorter releases, while The Quarry (2022) applied it at a larger scale for 2K.

The first major blow came in early 2024, when Supermassive confirmed plans to cut around 90 roles — roughly 30% of its then workforce — shortly after reports of cancelations emerged around some of its projects. A second round followed later that year. This third round brings the cumulative reduction to approximately three-quarters of the studio's 2023 size.

For the teams that remain, the operational implications are significant. A studio of this scale cannot sustain the multi-project pipeline Supermassive previously ran, which at various points included mainline Dark Pictures entries, spin-offs and external collaborations. Consolidation onto fewer, smaller projects is the likely outcome, though the studio has not detailed its current slate.

The layoffs also reflect broader pressure on the narrative-horror niche the studio occupies. Development costs for performance-heavy, actor-led productions — motion capture, licensed music, ensemble casts — have risen while the mid-budget segment between indie and AAA has contracted industry-wide. Supermassive's model depended on predictable returns from episodic and mid-scale releases, a segment that has proven vulnerable as publishers consolidate their portfolios around fewer, larger bets.

Parent company Nordisk Film Games, the games arm of the Danish media group Egmont, has not commented beyond the studio's announcement. Nordisk acquired Supermassive in 2022 as part of a buying spree that also included studios such as Flashbulb Games and Nerial; the holding has faced questions about portfolio strategy as several of its studios have struggled in the downturn.

Supermassive's most recent high-profile release was the Until Dawn remake, developed with Ballistic Moon for PlayStation 5 and PC in 2024. The studio itself shipped The Casting of Frank Stone, a Supermassive-developed title set in the Dead by Daylight universe, published by Behaviour Interactive in September 2024.

The question now is whether Supermassive stabilizes at its reduced size or faces further cuts. Watch for Nordisk Film Games' next portfolio statement and any confirmation of the studio's active projects as the clearest signals of its trajectory.