Directive 8020 Launches Online Multiplayer in Free Update

Supermassive Games has launched a brand-new online multiplayer mode for Directive 8020, its sci-fi survival horror adventure, via a free update announced today on GamesPress.

The update lets groups of up to five players connect online — from separate or shared locations — and board the colony ship Cassiopeia together, with each player taking control of a different crew member. Every player needs their own copy of the game. From there, the group must work together — or not — to survive alien mimics, deadly dilemmas, and catastrophic system failures.

The new mode mirrors the game’s Movie Night Mode couch co-op experience: each online player takes control of a character aboard the Cassiopeia, playing their turn directly on their own screen and device. Several ways to play together are included:

• Custom Mode — the traditional couch co-op experience brought online. Choose your character at the start of the game, and when your character is in play, you’re up.
• Round Robin Mode — no character allocation here; instead, there’s a set time between each player change.
• Choice Voting — for the difficult decisions, on-screen prompts reveal who voted for an outcome and which way they cast their vote. Follow the majority or break ranks and go your own way.
• Mix & Match — any combination of up to five people can play from any locations, whether that’s five people in five separate locations, two in one and three in another, or however the group sees fit.

The update also brings new wardrobe DLC for the characters, including retro silver space suits. And the classic Dark Pictures feature known as Premonitions comes to Directive 8020, with 13 new collectibles scattered throughout the game offering glimpses of potential futures — use them to inform your decisions, or ignore them at your peril.

The crew of the Cassiopeia includes Pilot Brianna Young, played by actress Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die, The Woman King), medical officer Dr. Samantha Cooper, commander Nolan Stafford, senior mission officer Laura Eisele, and technical engineer Josef Cernan. Every choice matters, every mistake can be fatal — and as the announcement warns, players should trust no one. Not even their friends.

Like previous entries in the anthology, Directive 8020 is built around branching, choice-driven storytelling where decisions ripple outward and characters can live or die based on the player’s calls. Adding online multiplayer to that formula means those life-or-death calls — and the blame that follows — can now be shared with friends in real time, whether everyone is on the same couch or scattered across the globe.

Directive 8020 is the latest entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, Supermassive’s series of standalone cinematic horror games. With Earth dying, humanity’s hopes rest on Tau Ceti f, a planet 12 light years away — but when the colony ship Cassiopeia crash-lands there, its crew discovers they are far from alone. They are being hunted by an alien organism capable of perfectly mimicking its prey, forcing them to make impossible choices to save the ship, the crew, and themselves.

The game originally launched on May 12, 2026, and is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, with single-player, five-player couch co-op through Movie Night Mode, and now online multiplayer for up to five players.

Supermassive Games, founded in 2008, is the BAFTA-winning UK studio behind Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures Anthology, and The Quarry.

You can read the full announcement on GamesPress.

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For Dark Pictures veterans, the update is a compelling reason to revisit the Cassiopeia — and for newcomers, there has rarely been a better time to jump in. Just remember: in Directive 8020, no decision is consequence-free, and no crewmate is above suspicion.