It was one of the top games coming in 2025, but Directive 8020 has been delayed to the first half of 2026.
So said British studio Supermassive Games on a post on X, in which it also added that “we anticipate losing up to 36 of our colleagues”.
Directive 8020 comes in the wake of layoffs then, and people losing their jobs in the game’s industry has sadly been a common occurrence for some time now. For example, back in 2023 Microsoft fired thousands of employees worldwide, this move leading to many game developers losing their jobs at several Xbox studios.
Nonetheless, regarding the layoffs at Supermassive the company said that “our absolute priority will be to offer full support to all those affected”.
And fortunately, the other Supermassive game slated for release in 2025, Little Nightmares III, is still on track to launch in October.
Nonetheless, this will still be sad news for all those who were looking forward to playing Directive 8020 this fall.
A statement from Supermassive Games. pic.twitter.com/Vom1CSGYGs
— Supermassive Games (@SuperMGames) July 22, 2025
Directive 8020 will be another entry in the Dark Pictures anthology of horror games, which began with the release of Man of Medan in the summer of 2019. Man of Medan was an exciting horror romp involving a World War 2 ship (which admittedly I’ve played through on more than one occasion).
Meanwhile, the following Dark Pictures game, Little Hope, had Silent Hill vibes, with a group of college students and their teacher trying to find a way out of the abandoned town of Little Hope, which had a historical connection to 17th century witch trials…
The following two entries in the Dark Pictures Anthology, House of Ashes (which was set during the Iraq war) and the most recent The Devil in Me (which came out in the fall of 2022) while enjoyable, were not quite as good as the earlier two though.
Hopes are high for the upcoming Directive 8020 nonetheless. Supermassive has said that “the response to the game so far has been fantastic”. And given that they will have several more months of development time to polish the game as it’s now coming in the first half of 2026, means gamers could be in for a treat when this finally hits shelves next year.
After all, Supermassive were behind classic horror game Until Dawn (one of last decade’s finest games) and the superb The Quarry, so hopes are high for Directive 8020. Judging by the trailer below, the game’s sci-fi setting does look interesting, and the studio has also secured the talents of James Bond actress Lashana Lynch, who plays an astronaut who ends up stranded on an alien planet. So Directive 8020 will be one game to look forward to come 2026, then.
Read more: Top 10 games coming in the second half of 2025