Layoffs ravaged the video game industry in 2023. Most of the biggest players such as Sony, Microsoft, and Embracer Group, all did large amounts of restructuring. This included thousands of developers losing their jobs, studio closures, and even game cancellations. Many great games were released in 2023, but the industry was very unstable in terms of job security for many developers. It doesn’t appear that 2024 is going to get much better either. It appears British developer Supermassive Games will be laying off a significant amount of developers this week.
In a report from Bloomberg by Jason Schreier, it was revealed that massive layoffs will be coming this week. Supermassive Games is the studio behind such games as Until Dawn, and The Quarry. The studio is widely known for its cinematic decision-based horror games. The studio has also enjoyed fruitful partnerships with big publishers such as Sony and Take-Two Interactive most recently. It appears even with these successes the studio will be looking at redundancies within its workforce. As per Schreier’s report around 90 employees at Supermassive Games will lose their jobs in the coming weeks. With a staff that sits around 300 people, this means almost a third of the studio will be cut.
Supermassive Games officially released a statement on X confirming Schreier’s report. Stating that indeed reorganization is occurring within the company. This reorganization is so that they can focus on their upcoming slate of projects, and core strengths as a studio. Unfortunately, it is unlikely this layoff will be the last we see this year. As the industry continues to cut jobs after the sudden slowdown in growth over the past year and a half. Hopefully, everyone affected by this layoff is able to find a new and stable job quickly.
