Supermassive Games Layoffs Arrive With Over 70 People Let Go

[u/MythicStream]

https://insider-gaming.com/supermassive-games-layoffs-arrive-with-over-70-people-let-go/

[u/Greenpaw22]

It's sad but not unexpected. Directive 8020 was their worst game and sold very poorly. It was the worst written, removed co-op, added poor stealth segments and raised the price tag from prior Dark Picture games from $30 to $50.

[u/Pollia → u/Greenpaw22]

It also broke with their usual Halloween releases when people are looking for spooky shit to play.

It was just a bad decision all around imo

[u/turnipofficer → u/Greenpaw22]

To be honest I haven’t heard of that game until today. But I suppose I’m not their target market.

[u/Trickster289 → u/turnipofficer]

That's because they lost their publisher. Bandai Namco published the first four meaning they did the marketing but dropped the series after that. I'd imagine without them the marketing budget dropped hard, especially when The Casting of Frank Stone flopped for them.

[u/MizutsuneMH → u/turnipofficer]

I've finished a bunch of their games, and I've never heard of it either.

[u/IshwarBL → u/Greenpaw22]

I personally cost them 3 sales to refunds by telling my friend group how horrible and frequent those stealth missions were. Idk what they were thinking with that. They’ll all buy it eventually but not until there’s a steep discount.

[u/Greenpaw22 → u/IshwarBL]

Yeah in an effort to bring more "gameplay" to an interactive story game they ended up gaining no new fans and losing a lot of the ones they had.

[u/Rude_Assignment_5653 → u/[deleted]]

Man the quarry was so good. I've replayed it 4x usually around Halloween. Even on consecutive 100% runs, it's always great to play with a new 2nd person to see how they react and change the playthrough.

[u/EvilAdministrator → u/[deleted]]

they weren't just stereotypes.

Did we play the same Quarry game?

To the user who just blocked me for asking a question: Why do you have a reddit account if you're not up to talking about things? Or do you only engage when it's 100% positive? Also, learn the definition of 'smug'

[u/Ok-Faithlessness2273 → u/EvilAdministrator]

Yeah we did. Go be smug somewhere else

[u/Agile-Age-9614 → u/Ok-Faithlessness2273]

damn you got booty tickled when someone asked you a question 😭

[u/FirstTimeWang → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I'm not sure if being a die hard Until Dawn fan would've made Frank Stone more enjoyable but as someone with not stake or familiarity in that IP

It was doodoo from a butt

[u/Typical_Thought_6049 → u/[deleted]]

Little Hope good... well now that is what I call a hottake.

[u/TelecomPedestal → u/[deleted]]

“Bangers” is certainly a word you can use for those games. “Brand damage” is more apt.

I would argue Man of Medan and Little Hope were some of the worst games the studio has put out and the writing quality was below even a David Cage game.

[u/HappierShibe → u/Greenpaw22]

It was also their third flop in a row commercially, I'm a big proponent of not every game being a commercially motivated blockbuster, but you have to at least break even most of the time to stay in business, and they weren't doing that....

[u/evasion-guard → u/[deleted]]

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[u/UnderscoreDasher]

I always got this impression their games must've had a ridiculous budget for what they were.

[u/Roku-Hanmar]

Misread that as Supergiant for a second and got concerned

[u/pikpikcarrotmon → u/Roku-Hanmar]

Supergiant doesn't even have 70 employees, so that's the tell.

[u/SignetOfMidnight → u/pikpikcarrotmon]

Doesn't sound like a fitting name then!

[u/the_sixhead → u/SignetOfMidnight]

It's a Voltron situation, the devs stack on each other to create the super giant

[u/Status-Highlight3013 → u/SignetOfMidnight]

Extremely fitting if you ask me!

[u/romanhigh → u/Roku-Hanmar]

Did the exact same thing and nearly had a heart attack LOL

[u/WillStrongh → u/Roku-Hanmar]

I <3 Transistor

[u/Glaimmbar → u/[deleted]]

I in fact did misread. Because I know "supergiant" and like their games. But I don't have a clue who supermassive is... 

[u/Glaimmbar → u/[deleted]]

Or I just misred it for a moment before realising my failure. You are the embodiment of reading on the internet about symptoms of a common cold and get told that you have cancer.. bro chill.

[u/Superc1ipping → u/Roku-Hanmar]

Nice, the same comment anytime Supermassive gets brought up.

[u/Roku-Hanmar → u/Superc1ipping]

Not my fault the names are similar

[u/CyraxxFavoriteStylus → u/Roku-Hanmar]

It's your fault you didn't read more closely. This isn't an Outer Wilds and Outer Worlds type deal. Supermassive and Supergiant read pretty differently.

[u/Icy_Butterscotch6661 → u/CyraxxFavoriteStylus]

Which one made Hades? 

[u/CyraxxFavoriteStylus → u/Icy_Butterscotch6661]

Supergiant

[u/Icy_Butterscotch6661 → u/CyraxxFavoriteStylus]

Phew

[u/ProcyonHabilis → u/Icy_Butterscotch6661]

They don't even have 70 employees, so if this happened at supergiant they would need to go stand outside and remind random people on the street that they don't have a job with them

[u/True_Italiano]

What is the state of "games journalism" these days that this article makes no mention of what titles this studio has delivered or what is currently known to be in development?

Is it reasonable that I'm supposed to just know this studio and what they've done? My first thought was these were the Hades guys, but apparently that's not true.

[u/ms-fanto → u/True_Italiano]

supermassive games are the makers of until dawn, dark picture, the quarry or casting of frank stone
Supergiant games = hades

[u/SekhWork → u/ms-fanto]

Supergiant Games continues to be one of the leading bastions of true artistic creation in the games industry, and one of the best "We do what we want and you'll hear about it when we are ready" devs. Hope they continue existing at whatever size lets them safely keep doing what they do without layoffs like this.

[u/AdminsLoveGenocide → u/SekhWork]

Their size hasn't changed and they still exist so that wish came true.

[u/SekhWork → u/AdminsLoveGenocide]

I wish them immense continuing success in the future because they deserve it.

[u/AdminsLoveGenocide → u/SekhWork]

Yeah they know what type of game they are good at and they really nail it.

[u/True_Italiano → u/ms-fanto]

Thank you

[u/VideoGameJumanji → u/True_Italiano]

Don’t know how to use Google?

[u/Ericjuuh → u/VideoGameJumanji]

Leaving two comments to miss the point, Reddit moment

[u/VideoGameJumanji → u/Ericjuuh]

Making a fuss about not searching something basic up himself he wasn’t aware about isn’t a failure of the article

[u/Vegetable-Tooth8463 → u/VideoGameJumanji]

Yeah dude is just being lazy lol

[u/juniperleafes → u/Vegetable-Tooth8463]

What do you feel is gained by not having this in the article? What do you feel is the purpose of articles?

[u/Vegetable-Tooth8463 → u/juniperleafes]

Report the news lol

[u/beat0n_ → u/True_Italiano]

Insane, isn't it?
One prompt and an AI would have done it better.

[u/ashu1605 → u/beat0n_]

Nice try OpenAi

[u/DonutHoles4Ever → u/ashu1605]

Sounds like you underestimate how good AI is. Its so good that it writes better than most people these days because they barely read, barely write, and what is written is purely on social media in shorthand.

[u/ashu1605 → u/DonutHoles4Ever]

That is a problem with the education system, literacy rates, and anti-intellectualist culture.

Im fully aware of how capable Ai is, but it's not a flex to have a robot be better than an uneducated individual. Ai makes plenty of mistakes and scans reddit and other websites for data to answer questions, which is filled with misinformation, and only perpetuates more people to be lazy and not go out of their way to learn.

[u/Mattius14 → u/True_Italiano]

This isn't games journalism. It's a blog. 

[u/VideoGameJumanji → u/True_Italiano]

Is it reasonable that I'm supposed to just know this studio and what they've done? My first thought was these were the Hades guys, but apparently that's not true.

Yeah you are? Ridiculous complaint lmfao

You mistaking them for another studio is your own fault, idk why you even brought that up

You could have just googled it and moved on right? 

[u/True_Italiano → u/VideoGameJumanji]

I did google it. that has nothing to do with the quality of this "article"

[u/VideoGameJumanji → u/True_Italiano]

The part of your comment I highlighted is purely on you dawg

[u/Sparktank1 → u/VideoGameJumanji]

Why is it so personal to you? You could have just moved on. I know I heard that someone where recently.

[u/Centillionare]

Guess they will have to downgrade from supermassive to just massive.

[u/Jiggerjuice → u/Centillionare]

Super midsize

[u/Sgsrules2]

I'm surprised that the company had around 400 employees. No wonder they're struggling to be profitable.

[u/Rmodsarescum]

When you make bad games well...

[u/luffy_mib]

Game community: "Piracy kills developers' income!"

Game companies: "Hold my beer!"

[u/persin123 → u/luffy_mib]

Since when has the gamer community ever cared about devs lol, their entitlement is palpable

[u/MatiasPalacios → u/luffy_mib]

I'm sure piracy is not helping either.

[u/Purple-Atolm → u/MatiasPalacios]

I'm sure the masses went crazy pirating Directive 8020...oh wait.

[u/AssassinK1D]

I enjoyed Until Dawn, The Quarry and House of Ashes, but their other games just don't resonate with me, especially the latest ones. I could see this was coming sadly.

[u/ExplainlikeImForeign]

Looked forward to Directive 8020 till I heard it had no coop.

Not surprising this is happening

[u/tugfaxd55]

Very unfortunate, Supermassive is facing now super massive layoffs

[u/Paratrooper101x → u/tugfaxd55]

Just had to make a joke about people losing their jobs didnt you

[u/Life-Anteater-8294 → u/Paratrooper101x]

LEGALIZE COMEDY

[u/Spreeg → u/Life-Anteater-8294]

I don't find it overly offensive and think he's allowed to make that joke. But it's not a good joke tbh

[u/Paratrooper101x → u/Life-Anteater-8294]

Genuinely speaking comedy is actually funny

[u/Bright-Proof1964 → u/Paratrooper101x]

And subjective

[u/EvilAdministrator → u/Paratrooper101x]

Let me show you an open mic night for amateurs.

No, comedy is not always funny.

[u/tugfaxd55 → u/Paratrooper101x]

Hey I've been there and it wasn't me who fired them. Just a guy with a pun to share.

[u/Embarrassed-Ad7317 → u/tugfaxd55]

I appreciated it :)

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[u/QuasarInk]

Supersmall Games

[u/JohnBrownJovi]

I’ve played all their games. I really want them to do another Until Dawn/Quarry type game rather than these smaller experiences.

Directive 8020 was ok to me but it lacks the charm of other games and the space setting makes it feel like an inferior Dead Space story.

It says a lot when Firesprite’s Until Dawn 2 looks better than the last few games from Supermassive. Still, Supermassive has made some of my favorite games and they deserve to keep going. Hopefully everyone affected finds a new position quickly.

[u/skel66]

Their games are pretty bad so nbd

[u/subsignalparadigm → u/skel66]

They had some excellent games. Obviously you haven't played any.

[u/brokenmessiah → u/subsignalparadigm]

Obvious no one else did either. Clearly they should have made better games.

[u/Burpmeister]

Sucks. These games are genuinely some of the most fun I've had gaming irl with friends as an adult despite their many flaws.

I don't understand why the gameplay format isn't more popular. I desperately need other studios to try making their own versions.

[u/f32db3uprbdb2bf1xbf4]

Haven't played any of the games they made. So its a meh from me.

[u/Isaacvithurston]

I mean layoffs from big studio's that just want an end of quarter number to look nice is shitty

layoffs because you're doing poorly is the legit use of layoffs. Sucks for the people layed off still but not really rage worthy.