Directive 8020 Shipped. Three Months Later, 75 Jobs Are Gone
Supermassive Games has opened redundancy consultations for up to 75 staff — three months after launching Directive 8020, and the studio's third layoff round in three years. It's not an isolated case: Xbox workers rallied outside Bethesda's Rockville HQ over up to 1,600 jobs at risk, Crossfire developer That's No Moon cut 14 staff, and the wreckage of Ubisoft's 51-person Barcelona layoff has already produced a new studio. A launch, even a shipped one, isn't proof a studio is out of the woods.
The case: Supermassive, three times over
The studio behind Until Dawn, The Quarry, and the Dark Pictures Anthology has begun redundancy consultations that could eliminate up to 75 roles. That's according to Game Developer, which pins this as the studio's third round of layoffs in three years. The timing is the part worth sitting with: Directive 8020, Supermassive's most recent release, launched only three months ago.
None of the sources in front of me carry hard sales figures for Directive 8020. What they carry is a description of its reception as "mixed," per IGN, and confirmation that this marks the studio's third consultation process in less than three years, per Eurogamer. I won't fill the gap with a guess about the game's numbers. The evidence I have says: ship a game, wait three months, cut staff anyway.
A launch used to be the finish line for job-security anxiety. It isn't anymore. Three rounds in three years at one studio means the layoff clock is now running independent of the release calendar.
It's not an isolated file
Supermassive's is the loudest number this cycle, but the same week produced a stack of smaller ones that add up to the same story. Xbox workers, ahead of an August 18th visit from platform head Asha Sharma to Bethesda's Rockville headquarters, planted red flags outside the building — one for each of the up to 1,600 jobs the Communications Workers of America says could be lost over the next year — and parked a giant inflatable rat on the lawn, per Rock Paper Shotgun.
Crossfire developer That's No Moon laid off 14 staff, according to Game Developer — a project that was only revealed to the public in June. And Ubisoft's Barcelona office, which cut 51 employees, has already produced an aftermath worth tracking: a group of former staff have launched a new studio, Dark Ritual Studios, out of the layoff itself.
What a reader does with this
On the money side: don't read a studio's launch as its safety net. Supermassive shipped and still cut staff three months later — a release date tells you nothing about the next quarter. If you're tracking a publisher for investment or career reasons, watch the redundancy-consultation announcements, not just the review scores.
On the scouting side: Dark Ritual Studios is the one line in this file worth pinning. New studios formed by veterans walking out of a layoff have a track record worth watching — they carry real shipped-game experience and something to prove. Nothing in the sources tells me what they're building yet. That's a name to check back on, not a verdict to render today.
Questions people ask
How many jobs are at risk at Supermassive Games?
Up to 75 roles, per redundancy consultations the studio announced — its third round of layoffs in three years.
Did Directive 8020 flop?
Unconfirmed. The sources describe the response as "mixed" but don't include sales figures — the layoffs are reported as following the launch by three months, not as caused by a confirmed commercial failure.
What other studios announced layoffs this week?
Crossfire developer That's No Moon cut 14 staff, and Ubisoft's Barcelona office cut 51 employees — some of whom have since launched a new studio, Dark Ritual Studios.
Is Xbox cutting more jobs too?
Reports cite up to 1,600 Xbox-related jobs at risk over the next year, the figure behind the Communications Workers of America's August 18th rallies and the protest outside Bethesda's headquarters.
The industry's own trade press, per PC Gamer, frames Supermassive's cuts flatly as the third round in under three years. That's not a cycle a studio walks back from with one good launch. File it, watch the next consultation date, and don't confuse a release with a resolution.
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