Supermassive cuts up to 75 roles in third layoff round; Nordisk portfolio under parallel stress

🔴 Summary Supermassive opened a third redundancy consultation in three years, targeting up to 75 roles Prior rounds: ~90 cuts in Feb 2024 (150 at risk) and 36 in Jul 2025 alongside Directive 8020's delay This round lands three months after Directive 8020 shipped to mixed reviews and ~447,000 units (Video Game Insight) Nordisk Games' other studios Avalanche (Liverpool closure) and MercurySteam also cut staff within the past year "a necessary step to help ensure the sustainability of the company" - Supermassive Games statement

📉 Cuts recur at every point in the release cycle, not just post-launch
Feb 2024: ~90 roles cut, 150 at risk, pre-production phase for Directive 8020
Jul 2025: 36 roles cut, Directive 8020 delayed from Oct 2025 to May 2026 for polish
Aug 2026: up to 75 roles at risk, three months post-launch
Cumulative reduction likely exceeds 200 roles across 30 months, with no disclosed remaining headcount
Each statement reuses "sustainability" and "challenging environment," indicating no stable operating baseline between releases

🎮 Two consecutive franchise extensions failed to reset the studio's economics
Little Nightmares 3 (Oct 2025): Supermassive took the series from original developer Tarsier, mixed reviews, no unit disclosure
Directive 8020 (May 2026): fifth Dark Pictures entry, ~447,000 units across Steam, PS, Xbox per Video Game Insight
Both titles are licensed or franchise extensions, not owned-IP launches with long-tail upside
Delay-for-polish investment on Directive 8020 did not convert into critical or commercial recovery

🏢 Nordisk portfolio shows holding-company-level stress, not one-studio mismanagement
Nordisk acquired Supermassive in 2022; also owns Avalanche Studios and MercurySteam
Avalanche closed its Liverpool location with layoffs; MercurySteam conducted separate cuts, both within the past year
Sony assigned Until Dawn 2 to Firesprite, removing Supermassive's original commercial anchor franchise from its pipeline
Three simultaneous stress signals under one owner point to a funding-model problem across mid-budget narrative studios

💡 What this means
For Investors & VC: treat "sustainability" language recurring across multiple rounds as a signal of unresolved unit economics, not a one-title miss
For Publishers & Developers: licensed franchise pickups (Little Nightmares, Dark Pictures continuations) are not substituting for owned-IP upside at this cost base