Hyper Light Drifter developer on brink of shutdown

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Studio founder Alx Preston has indicated that Heart Machine may not survive this latest setback.

Ozzie Mejia September 16, 2026 1:02 PM Heart Machine 1

Hyper Light Drifter developer Heart Machine appears to be on life support following a recent setback with a publisher. The publisher pulled out of Heart Machine's project, which leaves the team with no project and with potentially no path forward. Studio founder Alx Preston stated that the studio will have to undergo near-total layoffs and may not survive.

Preston posted the following to his LinkedIn page (via Wario64):

I have very difficult news today.

We had been working on an unannounced title, funded by a publisher. This week, the publisher decided to no longer move forward with it. Without this key income for the studio, any other immediate prospects or other funds, nearly everyone at the studio had to be laid off. It's devastating.

Everyone will be provided with as much support as possible, including assisting with placement. If you know of any roles for extraordinarily talented, kind people, please reach out and we will coordinate.

Thank you so so much to all of the incredible people who contributed their efforts and talents to making amazing things at the studio. Thank you to our amazing community and fans.

Right now, I'm not sure yet how or if Heart Machine survives. Navigating an increasingly challenging industry has been extremely difficult. However, we'll keep pushing to build a path.

This latest setback for Heart Machine comes nearly a year after it announced that it wound wind down development on Hyper Light Breaker follow-up Hyper Light Breaker after several months on Steam Early Access. The move led to substantial layoffs for the team, but Heart Machine persevered with the Devolver Digital-published Possessor(s). It's unknown what this latest project was or who this publisher was, but Wednesday's events appear to have the studio on the brink of shutting down.

Nobody appears to know what's next for Heart Machine, but we'll be sure to keep an eye on this story at Shacknews and report back with any new developments.

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Ozzie Mejia Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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