Heart Machine Lays Off 'Nearly Everyone at the Studio' As Unannounced Title is Cancelled - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 4 days ago / 1,236 Views
Hyper Light Drifter developer Heart Machine has laid off "nearly everyone at the studio" after it has cancelled an un announced title that its publisher is no longer moving forward with.
"I have very difficult news today," said Heart Machine founder Alx Preston in a LinkedIn post.
"We had been working on an unannounced title, funded by a publisher. This week, they 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.
"Navigating an increasingly challenging industry has been extremely difficult, and I’m not sure yet what’s next for Heart Machine to survive. However, we’ll keep pushing to build a path while we are still here."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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They released one good game 10 years ago, Hyper Light Drifter, and then Solar Ash got no players, and that's it. It's just too slow to run a business (remember Rare did their games, 1 per year, not 1 every 6 years).
I really wish we had a modern studio making Rare quality titles once per year. Those employees from the 90s were something else.
This is truly horrible and my heart goes out to all the people who lost their jobs.
