Supermassive Games Cuts Staff: 70+ Developers Exit This Week

More than 70 developers appear to have left Supermassive Games this week, in the latest round of layoffs to hit the British games studio, Eurogamer reports.

The departures, tracked through public employee updates on social platforms and professional networks, point to a significant headcount reduction at the Guildford-based studio best known for narrative horror titles including Until Dawn and The Quarry. Neither Supermassive Games nor its parent company has confirmed exact figures, which leaves the 70-plus number as the strongest available estimate rather than an official count.

What do the departures mean for the studio?

Supermassive has operated under Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive's former sister structure no longer — the studio was acquired by Nordisk Games, the Danish investment arm of Egmont, in a deal that gave Nordisk a controlling stake in 2022. This week's cuts land while the studio continues work on announced projects, and Eurogamer's reporting suggests the reductions span multiple disciplines rather than a single team.

For affected developers, the timing matters. The UK games industry has absorbed successive waves of job losses since early 2023, and competition for senior roles in narrative design, cinematic animation and audio has intensified as studios consolidate around fewer, larger bets.

How does this fit the wider market?

The Supermassive departures add to a sector pattern rather than standing apart from it:

• UK games studios have faced repeated restructurings since 2023, with thousands of roles cut industry-wide
• Mid-sized narrative studios have proven especially exposed as publishers trim external and internal project slates
• Demand remains strongest for developers with engine-level skills and shipped-title credits on current-generation hardware

For individual workers, the practical read is straightforward: studios of Supermassive's size — several hundred staff — typically rehire slowly after cuts of this scale, so displaced developers should expect a competitive search window measured in months, not weeks, particularly in the South East cluster around Guildford and London.

What happens next?

Eurogamer notes that the full extent of the layoffs may still emerge as more affected staff post publicly. Expect confirmation or clarification from the studio or its owner in the coming days, and watch whether the cuts pause development on announced titles or simply trim capacity around them.