Heart Machine faces possible closure after publishing deal falls through; majority of staff laid off

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Heart Machine is facing a possible shutdown after a publishing deal fell through, leaving the studio without the funding it expected to keep operating. Studio head Alx Preston said nearly everyone at the company had to be laid off because there was no immediate replacement income or other funds to bridge the gap.

Preston said the studio is trying to support departing staff with placement help and other assistance, while also acknowledging that Heart Machine’s next step is still unclear. For developers, the immediate takeaway is that even a well-known indie team can be pushed into crisis when external financing disappears, especially in a market where small studios are already exposed to consolidation and tighter funding conditions.

This is the latest in a rough stretch for Heart Machine, which has already gone through three rounds of layoffs in nearly three years. The studio cut staff in November 2024 as Hyper Light Breaker approached early access, then again in October 2025, including redundancies reported just before Possessor(s) launched.

The company also voluntarily recognized a union earlier this year after 13 staff members formed a bargaining unit. The situation underscores how fragile production planning can be when a project’s runway depends on publisher support, and how quickly a studio can lose continuity across multiple releases.