{"id":773101,"date":"2026-09-17T01:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/773101\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T01:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:26:09","slug":"heart-machine-lays-off-nearly-everyone-at-the-studio-following-cancellation-of-unannounced-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/773101\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart Machine lays off \u201cnearly everyone at the studio\u201d following cancellation of unannounced title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Companies &gt; Heart Machine [36 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/companies\/heart-machine\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Heart Machine<\/a>, the studio behind\u00a0<a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Games &gt; Hyper Light Drifter [12 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/games\/hyper-light-drifter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hyper Light Drifter<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Games &gt; Solar Ash [11 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/games\/solar-ash\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Solar Ash<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Games &gt; Possessor(s) [5 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/games\/possessors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Possessor(s)<\/a>, and the still-in-Early Access\u00a0<a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Games &gt; Hyper Light Breaker [11 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/games\/hyper-light-breaker\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hyper Light Breaker<\/a>, has laid off \u201cnearly everyone at the studio\u201d following the cancellation of an unannounced title that its publisher decided to no longer move forward with, founder Alx Preston said in a <a class=\"link-external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/alx-preston-a6729262_i-have-very-difficult-news-today-we-had-activity-7506048787061043200-O5tY\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn post<\/a> today. <\/p>\n<p>While the majority of Heart Machine was laid off, Preston said that, <a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Games &gt; I, Robot (2025) [2 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/games\/i-robot-2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cI<\/a>\u2018m not sure yet what\u2019s next for Heart Machine to survive. However, we\u2019ll keep pushing to build a path while we are still here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here is the full message from Preston:<\/p>\n<p>I have very difficult news today.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s devastating.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Navigating an increasingly challenging industry has been extremely difficult, and I\u2019m not sure yet what\u2019s next for Heart Machine to survive. However, we\u2019ll keep pushing to build a path while we are still here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heart Machine, the studio behind\u00a0Hyper Light Drifter,\u00a0Solar Ash,\u00a0Possessor(s), and the still-in-Early Access\u00a0Hyper Light Breaker, has laid off \u201cnearly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-773101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}