'It’s not safe and it’s not easy, but people are drawn to it anyway': Directive 8020's executive producer on why space was the perfect setting for their long-awaited new horror game

Directive 8020 is almost here, and the latest Supermassive Games brings a lot to the table. In my preview, I reassured fans that it was well worth the wait when it arrives on May 12, 2026, for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

I also had the opportunity to speak to the game's executive producer Dan McDonald ahead of the anticipated release. It's exciting that this is the first in the Dark Pictures Anthology to be set in space, a new location that presents a whole host of new challenges.

McDonald told me that they had always wanted to have a space-focused horror game. He said, "Game 5 was always going to go into space. We always knew we were going to go there. We do something different from the other big franchises. You know, we love Silent Hill, we love Resident Evil and that kind of thing.

"And their games are different every time, but they sit on Earth, it's similar locations and stuff. We get to change it up every time. We've done a ghost ship, we've done witch trials and stuff, we’ve even done vampires in the desert. But when you look at horror franchises or movies or games, the sci-fi space is huge."

He added, "Obviously, there’s games like Alien: Isolation and Dead Space. And we've all been talking about the Alien: Earth TV series, and there's just so many different places we can go. It's really fun and also challenging for the team."

During our conversation, I noted that space exploration is a weird mix of emotions. It's terrifying but also hopeful, especially since we've just had the Artemis II flyby of the Moon, something that was widely celebrated across the world.

I was curious if balancing those feelings of joy and terror was interesting in a video game format, especially one as interactive as this.

McDonald replied, "Oh, yeah, definitely. I'm pretty old now, but one of my first core memories was the Challenger disaster. I think we watched that live at school. I know a lot of schools across the UK had it on. Even just thinking about it now, it’s devastating, and that's a real human thing that real people died in.

"There’s human memory of these things going wrong. But like you say, there’s hope. I hope we solve current problems and make our planet good, but it isn’t going to be easy, and bad stuff is going to happen. Space is dangerous. The spaceship is essentially a tin can with death on the other side of it; it’s not safe, and it’s not easy, but people are drawn to it anyway."

In Directive 8020, you'll follow the crew of a colony ship called Cassiopeia after it crash-lands on a planet that is 12 light-years away from Earth. The crew is forced out of hypersleep early on their mission to save a dying Earth, where they're soon up against a terrifying new threat: a shapeshifting creature that can mimic others.

There's a lot of familiarity here, but there's also enough new stuff to make Directive 8020 very engaging. I'm so excited for people to explore the latest chapter in The Dark Pictures Anthology,

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