The Dark Pictures: Directive 8020 delayed to early 2026

Supermassive’s space horror adventure, and the next game in the Dark Pictures Anthology, Directive 8020 has been delayed to early 2026 from a planned October launch.

In a statement on social media, the studio writes:

We’ve made the decision to move the launch of Directive 8020 to the first half of 2026.

The reaction to the game so far has been incredible, and we believe that taking a bit more time will help us deliver the very best experience for you all. Everyone at Supermassive is deeply grateful for your patience and ongoing support.

We can’t wait for you to board the Cassiopeia.

It’s a shame that the game will miss its target release, especially when October is the traditional launch window for all sorts of scary games, looking to make the most of the Halloween spooky season. At the same time, the old saying “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad” is still relatively wise, even if it’s always been misattributed to Shigeru Miyamoto, and we now live in an age where games can be patched and made good with enough extra time and effort.

Directive 8020 also looks to be the most ambitious game in The Dark Pictures series to date, starring Lashana Lynch as the lead in a frantic battle for survival against an alien organism that is able to mimic and disguise itself through the crew of a colony ship.

The team is using Unreal Engine 5 for the first time, and really looking to push the cinematic scope of the story that they’re telling. Compared to earlier games under the Dark Pictures banner, there’s full third person character control, instead of fixed camera angles – something Supermassive already did away with in later games – but Directive 8020 is pushing further toward action game territory with its take on sci-fi horror.

We look forward to seeing more and hope that the rest of development goes smoothly.

Source: Threads