Hyper Light Drifter studio Heart Machine risks closure after mass layoffs
Indie studio Heart Machine, creator of Hyper Light Drifter, has laid off nearly its entire staff after a publisher pulled funding from an unannounced project. The studio's future is now uncertain.
Heart Machine founder Alx Preston has announced that the indie studio laid off nearly its entire team. The cause was a publisher's decision this week to stop funding an unannounced title the studio had been developing. With that key income gone and no other immediate funding prospects available, the studio was forced to let most of its staff go.
Heart Machine built its reputation with Hyper Light Drifter, which it both developed and published, earning wide critical praise upon its 2016 release. For later projects, the studio began working with outside publishers, starting with Solar Ash. In 2022, it announced a sequel to its debut title, Hyper Light Breaker.
Work on that sequel proceeded alongside another project, Possessor(s), which may have spread the team's resources too thin. While Possessor(s) did ship last year, Heart Machine ended development on Hyper Light Breaker and carried out layoffs in October 2025. Some remaining employees voted to unionize this past March.
Preston said navigating an increasingly difficult industry has taken a heavy toll, and it remains unclear what comes next for the studio's survival. It marks a potentially sad end for a studio that won over many fans a decade ago.
