Supermassive Games, the team behind Bandai Namco's Dark Pictures horror series, has delayed its upcoming title Directive 8020 out of this October. The studio's next spooky cinematic experience will now land in "the first half of 2026", as it lays off 36 staff members in the process.
This unfortunate news comes accompanied by a lengthy developer statement, where the company says that it's adapting to "a challenging and ever-evolving environment" in the games industry right now. We'll throw its full message down below:
As you can see in the above statement, Supermassive reckons this delay will "help us deliver the very best experience for our fans" when Directive 8020 eventually comes out next year. The team also clarifies that its work on Little Nightmares III will be unaffected by the delay and its associated job cuts.
As for the game itself, well, we're still looking forward to seeing how it turns out - even if the move away from a Halloween release is a little disappointing. We've enjoyed pretty much everything this studio has put out so far, so we're willing to wait just a little longer for Directive 8020 to sink its blood-soaked claws into us next year.