Heart Machine is hemorrhaging staff, and the timing couldn’t be worse. Just two weeks before Possessor(s) launches on November 11, 2025, the indie studio that gave us Hyper Light Drifter has conducted its second massive round of layoffs in three weeks. At least four employees announced their job losses on Bluesky on October 28 and 29, with Heart Machine community and PR manager Yiyi Zhang confirming the cuts were effective immediately.
The Brutal Timing
Zhang didn’t mince words about how dystopian this situation has become. “By the time Possessor(s) comes out on November 11, I don’t know if anyone who worked on the game will even be at the company anymore. That’s game dev.” Those five words sum up everything wrong with how the video game industry treats its workers. A game is about to launch into the world, but the people who spent years creating it are being escorted out the door weeks before their work goes public.
What makes this worse is that these weren’t all part of the same layoff wave. Heart Machine officially announced a first round of layoffs in early October that cut more than a dozen employees. That was bad enough. But this second round, happening three weeks later, caught even more people off guard. The fact that at least four more people are posting about layoffs separately suggests the studio might be conducting rolling cuts rather than one decisive moment.
A Studio In Freefall
Heart Machine’s situation didn’t happen overnight. The studio built its reputation on Hyper Light Drifter, a masterpiece released way back in 2016. That single game funded the studio for nearly a decade, which is genuinely impressive. But the recent track record tells a different story. Solar Ash, released in 2022, didn’t perform as expected commercially. Then came Hyper Light Breaker, an early access side-scrolling action brawler that launched in January 2025 to brutal reviews.
Hyper Light Breaker got so much negative feedback that the studio decided to cease development and push toward a “final update” that would essentially be the 1.0 version. But that update never came in a way that salvaged the game’s reputation. The decision to abandon active development triggered a wave of negative reviews on Steam from frustrated players who felt abandoned. Around the same time, Heart Machine even launched a Patreon campaign, a desperate cry for help that suggested the studio’s financial situation had become dire.
Strategic Blunders
Looking back, it’s clear that Heart Machine made some catastrophic strategic decisions. The studio expanded massively to work on Hyper Light Breaker, scaling from roughly 10-15 people to significantly more staff. That kind of rapid expansion when you’re living off the fumes of a 2016 hit is dangerous. The founder, Alx Preston, famously said he viewed both Solar Ash and Hyper Light Breaker as “you only live once” risks, a “YOLO” mentality that doesn’t work well when you’re managing a team’s livelihoods.
Instead of playing it safe and iterating on what made Hyper Light Drifter so successful, Heart Machine decided to pivot hard into 3D development with two separate projects. Neither one connected with audiences the way the studio hoped. Solar Ash was decent but didn’t break through commercially. Hyper Light Breaker was criticized for its janky controls and repetitive gameplay during early access.
What About Possessor(s)
Possessor(s) is Heart Machine’s attempt to get back on track. It’s a side-scrolling action brawler that’s supposed to release on November 11, 2025. The game looks stylish and has received some positive attention in the indie community, but it’s launching into an absolutely poisoned environment. The studio is in freefall. The company has just laid off staff twice in three weeks. Players are wary after Hyper Light Breaker’s troubled launch.
Even worse, the very people who made Possessor(s) won’t be around to support it. If developer Zhang is right that almost nobody will remain at Heart Machine after the game launches, that means minimal post-launch support, minimal bug fixes, and minimal chance to capitalize on any momentum the game gains. Game development is a collaborative effort, and having 90 percent of your team gone at launch is a disaster.
A Systemic Problem
Heart Machine’s collapse is more than just one studio’s failure. It’s symptomatic of the entire indie game economy. Studios bet everything on one hit. Hyper Light Drifter was brilliant and beloved, but expecting every project to reach that level of success is unrealistic. When passion projects don’t pan out commercially, staff pay the price. The founder gets to learn expensive lessons. The developers get unemployment notices.
What makes this particularly tragic is that Heart Machine clearly consists of passionate, talented people. The art direction in their games is consistently excellent. The design philosophy is clearly thought-out. They didn’t fail because they’re incompetent. They failed because they scaled aggressively before securing reliable revenue streams, and they took too many simultaneous creative risks without safety nets.
Looking Forward
Heart Machine plans to move forward with a small core team focused on completing work on Hyper Light Breaker’s 1.0 version. Whether Possessor(s) sells well enough to turn things around is now the only lifeline. If the game resonates with players and generates enough revenue, maybe Heart Machine survives. If it doesn’t, this could be the beginning of the end for a studio that once seemed untouchable.
For the developers who were laid off, the worst part might be the lack of acknowledgment. They built these games. They poured thousands of hours into assets, code, design, and art. And now they’re being let go without even the respect of a company-wide announcement or severance package that makes sense for their situation.
FAQs
How many people did Heart Machine lay off?
Heart Machine hasn’t released official numbers, but reports suggest at least a dozen people were laid off in the first round in early October, with at least four additional employees laid off in the second round on October 28-29. The exact total is unknown, and the studio has not issued a formal statement about the scope of the cuts.
When does Possessor(s) release?
Possessor(s) is scheduled to launch on November 11, 2025. Given the chaos at the studio, post-launch support is uncertain.
What is Possessor(s)?
Possessor(s) is a stylish side-scrolling action brawler from Heart Machine. The game has received positive previews from indie gaming communities and is one of the studio’s hopes for a financial turnaround.
Is Heart Machine going out of business?
Not necessarily, but the studio is clearly in serious financial trouble. They’ve laid off staff twice in three weeks, launched a Patreon campaign, and are planning to operate with a small core team going forward. Whether Possessor(s) sales can save them is unclear.
What happened with Hyper Light Breaker?
Hyper Light Breaker launched into early access in January 2025 to poor reviews. The studio received criticism for janky controls and repetitive gameplay. Heart Machine eventually decided to cease active development and push toward a 1.0 release that would essentially be a final version. The decision to stop supporting the game triggered negative Steam reviews from frustrated players.
Why is Heart Machine in this situation?
Heart Machine depended primarily on revenue from Hyper Light Drifter, released in 2016. The studio then scaled up significantly to work on multiple 3D projects simultaneously without securing reliable new revenue streams. Solar Ash and Hyper Light Breaker didn’t perform as expected, leaving the studio overextended and unable to sustain its workforce.
Could Possessor(s) save Heart Machine?
It’s possible if the game sells well enough to generate immediate revenue. However, the studio’s layoffs and limited team make marketing and post-launch support challenging. Even critical success might not be enough if sales don’t meet financial targets quickly.
What’s Heart Machine planning next?
Heart Machine says it will operate with a small core team focused on completing Hyper Light Breaker’s 1.0 update. Beyond that, the studio’s future projects are unclear and depend entirely on Possessor(s) sales performance.
Conclusion
Heart Machine’s collapse is heartbreaking but predictable. A brilliant studio built on the foundation of one game made strategic missteps, scaled too aggressively, and now is paying the price by cutting the very people who made their games. Possessor(s) launches in two weeks to an industry watching to see if the game can pull Heart Machine back from the brink. For the developers who’ve already been shown the door, the studio’s fate is probably irrelevant. They’ll be looking for their next opportunity while watching from the outside as the game they helped create tries to survive in a crowded market. That’s game dev in 2025.