AHeatonwriter
Last year was a terrible time for anyone working in the video game industry. We saw thousands of people lose their jobs, as well as entire studios shutting down. Sadly, this trend is continuing into 2024, and Supermassive Games appears to be the latest casualty.
In a statement posted to the studio’s Twitter/X account, the team behind Until Dawn and The Quarry has acknowledged that times are tough for the gaming industry. As such, the developer has made the difficult decision to undertake a “reorganisation of Supermassive Games.” This will almost certainly result in the “loss of some of our colleagues.”
A statement from Supermassive Games. pic.twitter.com/9GkgIrYQvt
— Supermassive Games (@SuperMGames) February 26, 2024
Exactly how much impact this will have on the company cannot be said at this stage. Howver, according to a recent report from Bloomberg (behind a paywall, unfortunately), the studio could see up to 90 layoffs. The Supermassive website shows that around 350 people are currently employed, which means maybe a quarter of the workforce could be losing their jobs.
The statement on social media goes on to say that this was “not a decision that’s been taken lightly,” and the company will be “working closely with all those involved to ensure the process is conducted as respectfully and compassionately as possible.”
It’s the same story we’ve heard hundreds of time over the past 12 months or so. We saw a number of developers being hit by layoffs, including Naughty Dog and The Callisto Protocol studio Striking Distance issuing redundancies in 2023. Since the beginning of this year, things don’t appear to have gotten much better, either. At this stage, it’s sadly a question of when rather than if further teams will be announcing job losses as we move into the third month of 2024.
