Supermassive Games Limited is a British

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

based in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. The studio is best known for developing horror games such as '' Until Dawn'' for

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

, '' The Dark Pictures Anthology'' for

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game video game publisher, publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to Namco's home and arcade video game ...

, '' The Quarry'' for

2K Games 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. The company was founded as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports sub-labels. The nascent label incorporated several developme ...

, and '' The Casting of Frank Stone'' for Behaviour Interactive.

History

Supermassive Games was founded by Pete Samuels in 2008, who had previously worked at

Psygnosis Psygnosis Limited (; known as SCE Studio Liverpool or simply Studio Liverpool from 1999) was a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher headquartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool. Founded in 1984 by Ian Het ...

and

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

. The company signed a contract to serve as Sony's second-party developer. The studio first worked on

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

for Media Molecule's ''

LittleBigPlanet ''LittleBigPlanet'' (''LBP''; stylised as ''LittleBIGPlanet'') is a Puzzle video game, puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in th ...

'', and games utilizing the

PlayStation Move is a Motion controller, motion game controller developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Initially released in 2010 for use with the PlayStation 3 home video game console, its compatibility was later expanded to its successor, the PlayStation ...

motion controller including '' Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves'' and '' Start the Party!''. The strategy was a success initially, as the studio posted full-year sales of £5.7 million in 2011. In 2012, the studio partnered with

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and released '' Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock''. It was intended to be the first game of a trilogy, but the game was poorly received. BBC then announced the decision to cancel all other games in the trilogy in the following year. Another partnership game with BBC, '' Wonderbook: Walking with Dinosaurs'', was released in 2013. The studio's breakout title, '' Until Dawn'', was also initially envisioned as a PlayStation Move title, though all motion controls were dropped when it was retooled into a PlayStation 4 game. ''Until Dawn'' was a

survival horror Survival horror is a Video game genre, subgenre of horror games. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical action games through limited ammunition or weapons, health, speed, and visio ...

interactive movie inspired by

slasher film A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...

s, and it became an unexpected success for Sony when it was released in 2015. With the success of ''Until Dawn'', the studio continued to expand the ''Until Dawn'' universe, releasing spin-off titles including '' Until Dawn: Rush of Blood'' and '' The Inpatient'' for

PlayStation VR The PlayStation VR (PS VR) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016. The headset works with the company's PlayStation 4 video game console and is forward compatible with PlaySta ...

, Sony's

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

headset. The studio also released the critically panned ''Bravo Team'' for PSVR. Supermassive initially wanted it to be "the game which defines shooters on VR", but it faced various development challenges throughout its development cycle. Supermassive then returned to the horror genre when it partnered with publisher

to create an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

series called '' The Dark Pictures Anthology''; the first game in the series is called '' The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan'', which was released in August 2019. Unlike Supermassive's previous titles, which all but two were available exclusively on

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

platforms, all games in the ''Dark Pictures'' series will also be available on Microsoft platforms including

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

. Supermassive plans on releasing a new entry in ''The Dark Pictures Anthology'' every 6 months, with a total of 8 games in the series, though more could be added if the series succeeds in sales. ''Man of Medan'' was followed by '' Little Hope'' (2020), '' House of Ashes'' (2021) and '' The Devil in Me'' (2022) which concluded the first season. Supermassive also released '' The Quarry'' in 2022, a standalone game envisioned as a spiritual successor to ''Until Dawn'' inspired by teen slasher and monster films. In March 2021,

Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S () is a Danish entertainment company involved in film production and distribution and a subsidiary of Egmont Group. The multimedia entertainment company is also involved in television production, cinemas, computer games and ...

, under their Nordisk Games division, purchased a 30.7% stake in the studio. In July 2022, Nordisk Games fully acquired Supermassive Games, making Supermassive a subsidiary of the Denmark-based company. In January 2024, it was reported that the company co-founders left the company. In February 2024,

Jason Schreier Jason Schreier (born May 10, 1987) is an American journalist and author who primarily covers the video game industry. He worked as a news reporter for ''Kotaku'' from 2011 to 2020 and was recognized for several Investigative journalism, investig ...

of ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

'' reported that Supermassive Games had informed 150 employees that they were at risk of layoffs, ultimately cutting 90 personnel.

Video games

Supermassive Games is known for interactive horror dramas including ''Until Dawn'', ''The Dark Pictures Anthology'', and ''The Quarry''.

References

External links

* * {{notelist British companies established in 2008 British subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Guildford Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies Video game companies established in 2008 2008 establishments in England Software companies of England 2022 mergers and acquisitions